Ancelotti to make Chelsea return

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The Italian coach learned that his father Giuseppe, 86, had been taken sick after Chelsea's 4-0 thrashing of Atletico Madrid in the Champions League on Wednesday night. His father was in a stable condition on Thursday night and the club's assistant boss Ray Wilkins is confident that Ancelotti will be back in time for Saturday's 5.30pm home game with Blackburn in the Barclays Premier League.

"I am sincerely hoping that Carlo will be back," said Wilkins. "His father is not in the best of condition. I spoke to Carlo on Thursday night and his father was stable, so we are keeping our fingers crossed that he will be back. Carlo will decide who plays."

Wilkins will take charge of the side against Rovers if Ancelotti remains in Italy as the Blues look to get back to winning ways in the domestic league.

Much of the build-up to the Rovers game has concerned Chelsea's bid to get FIFA's transfer ban suspended via the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

Chelsea are currently banned from signing any new players for the next two transfer windows after being found guilty of inducing teenager Gael Kakuta to breach his contract with Lens two years ago.

A suspension would allow Chelsea to strengthen their squad in January during a period when they will lose Didier Drogba, Salomon Kalou, Michael Essien and John Mikel Obi to the African Nations Cup.

However, Wilkins said: "We have got a massive game against Blackburn tomorrow and as far as the transfer situation is concerned I am not overly concerned about that.

"It would be very pleasant to be able to bring people in because we lose some influential players in Kalou, Drogba, Essien and Mikel, but we have a squad here that is more than capable of coping with that situation.

"If we are able to bring people in then all well and good and if we are not, we'll just crack on with what we have got. We are quite confident with what we have here."