Villas-Boas confirms Ramires knee damage

Andre Villas-Boas said midfielder Ramires suffered knee ligament damage during Chelsea’s 1-0 FA Cup win over Queens Park Rangers.

Brazil international Ramires is facing up to four weeks on the sidelines with a medial ligament injury after being forced off late in his side’s 1-0 fourth-round victory at Loftus Road on Saturday.

“It looks like a medial knee ligament injury,” Villas-Boas said.

“It is not so bad in terms of the worst knee injuries but he’ll have the MRI scan tomorrow and we’ll know the full extent and I think hopefully he is going to avoid an operation.”

“We have to know the extent of the ligament injury and eventually with the treatment and results we have been having medically, we could be looking at a four-week period.”

“We have to look at the extent of the injury. Maybe more than that, but hopefully not.”

The build-up to the match focused on whether or not Anton Ferdinand would shake the hand of Chelsea captain John Terry, who is under police investigation for allegedly racially abusing the QPR man during the teams’ league meeting at Loftus Road on October 23.

In a bid to defuse any tension between the clubs’ supporters, the English Football Association opted to cancel the traditional pre-match handshakes.

“I was informed of the decision 45 minutes before the game,” Villas-Boas said.

“I think it was a wise decision bearing in mind the expectancy that was aroused from the fact that a couple of events could happen in that handshake.”

“I think the decision of both clubs backed up by the FA was sensible to avoid that expectancy and the possible crowd reaction from whatever would happen from that handshake.”

“It was a question of avoiding troublesome situations and I think it was a good decision. Everything was clear and both teams got on with their jobs.”

QPR manager Mark Hughes echoed the sentiments of his counterpart.

“It was absolutely the correct decision,” he said when asked about the cancelled handshakes.

“There was so much tension in such a brief moment in time that it clouded the issue, which today was surely the FA Cup tie we’re all involved in.”

“The fact that we took the whole issue out of the equation was exactly the right thing to do.”