Ancelotti expects Cole to make World Cup

Posted Friday, February 12, 2010 by PA

Carlo Ancelotti insists Ashley Cole will be fit for the World Cup finals this summer after confirming the defender underwent surgery on his broken ankle early on Friday afternoon.

The Italian coach believes there is every chance that the England left-back can return to first-team action before the end of the season and play for his country in this summer's finals in South Africa.

"In three months he will be ready to play, so for England he can play in the World Cup," Ancelotti said.

"It's bad news because Ashley is a very important player for us," said Ancelotti. "But we have the opportunity to play Yury Zhirkov, another fantastic left-back, and I have confidence that he will do a very good job.

"He's played very well in the last few games, and has played very well at left-back as well as in midfield. I've said I have a lot of confidence in him.

"He's a very good player. We wanted to buy him in the summer also for this - he could be an alternative to Ashley. Now his moment has come and I think he will be fit to do his best.

"I'm disappointed because Ashley is a very important player for us, but it can happen that a player gets an injury. I hope he recovers quickly and comes back before the end of the season. That's a realistic possibility. He will have surgery today and we hope to recuperate him quickly.

Ancelotti insisted Chelsea were taking Saturday's FA Cup fifth-round clash with Cardiff seriously - but he was confident enough to reveal his starting XI.

The Blues will be without John Terry, given compassionate leave, and the injured Ashley Cole, while goalkeeper Petr Cech and striker Nicolas Anelka were also absent from the team named by the Italian.

He said: "Tomorrow we'll play Hilario in goal, Paulo Ferreira, Alex, Ricardo Carvalho and Yury Zhirkov; Frank Lampard, John Obi Mikel, Michael Ballack; Daniel Sturridge, Joe Cole and Didier Drogba up front. The bench will be Ross Turnbull, Jeffrey Bruma, Branislav Ivanovic, Florent Malouda, Nemanja Matic, Fabio Borini and Salomon Kalou."