London: Chelsea defender Ricardo Carvalho and midfield maestro Deco have been sidelined with injuries.
Carvalho damaged his ligament in the early stages of the draw they played out against Manchester United on Sunday and could miss upto a month of action.
Portuguese playmaker Deco missed the game against United after tearing a muscle in his upper thigh during the warm-up and has also been ruled out for about two weeks.
With Michael Essien already out for six months the loss of Carvalho and Deco will hit the Blues hard.
Chelsea are in in second place in the English Premier league after the 1-1 draw against united at Stamford Bridge and manager Luiz Felipe Scolari is trying to hire Brazilian midfielder Mineiro, who is out of contract.
Meanwhile, United are set to be fined £25,000 pounds ($46,000) after receiving seven yellow cards in the clash of last season's top two.
But they will not be the subject of any further action after referee Mike Riley's match report indicated that there were no further incidents which require attention.
United manager Alex Ferguson was angered by the bookings, insisting that it had not been a rough match.
"It was a competitive game but I did not think there was one bad tackle in it," said Ferguson.
Deco's pre-match injury appeared to disrupt Chelsea and United took the lead through man of the match Park Ji-Sung before Salomon Kalou equalised 10 minutes from time.
(With inputs from CNN)
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