Seeing Ramires hobble off with what looked like a knee injury on Saturday (just after he'd scored to put the game to bed, no last) was undeniably unpleasant. The Brazilian, who came to the Blues from Benfica in summer 2010, has rapidly evolved from a complete liability into a key part of Chelsea's centre, serving as something approximating Michael Essien's skinny doppelganger in the Blues midfield. If Ramires went down and with Essien already out long-term, the club would have difficultly fielding a midfield with anything like the same bite. That's ok when you're facing Genk or Queens Park Rangers*, say, but a longer term injury would be very bad news indeed.
*QPR's midfield, incidentally, is probably much better than it's given credit for.
But, fortunately, Chelsea immediately described Ramires' injury as 'minor' and we've had more good news since. Hit it, magical Twitter machine:
@chelseafc
Chelsea FC AVB announces Ramires won't play against Genk but there is a 50 per cent chance of him playing against QPR. #CFC (SL)
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Fifty percent chance of being fit for QPR? I'll take that in a heartbeat. In the meantime, though, Chelsea are going to have to do without a real box to box midfield player in their UEFA Champions League match against Genk on Wednesday. That's ok - the Belgians will be without a defence.