Alex out for 'Six to Eight Weeks'

The bad news just keeps coming as we lose yet another central defender to long-term injury.

Alex's knee has kept him out of the lineup for recent matches, but he was expected to feature for Brazil in their match against Argentina this week. Unfortunately, that won't happen - he's undergoing exploratory surgery instead. According to the Chelsea website, he'll be out of action for six to eight weeks.

With John Terry also on the sidelines for an extended period, Chelsea are facing a crisis in central defence. Paulo Ferreira was a major problem in Sunday's loss to Sunderland, so I'd expect to see Jeffrey Bruma starting alongside Branislav Ivanovic for the time being. On the plus side, we might get more crowd shots of Alex and mini-Alex, who is according to several sources the cutest thing ever to live.

I suspect the January transfer window will be rather busy - and I sure wish we'd picked up more cover there this summer.