Drogba in battle for fitness

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The 31-year-old is making slow progress after jarring his ankle in training and interim coach Guus Hiddink wants to give him all the time he can to recover.

"Drogba is with our medical staff," said Hiddink. "He suffered a reaction to an ankle injury he picked up in training."

He added :"At the moment we'll just have to see if he can train and take it from there but we know we have some big, tough games coming up."

Hiddink insists Drogba is mentally ready following the Ivory Coast stadium disaster.

The collapse of a stadium wall caused the deaths of 19 fans before the recent World Cup qualifier against Malawi in Abidjan, a game which also featured his Chelsea team-mate Salomon Kalou.

"We've talked about the tragedy in Abidjan with the whole squad," added Hiddink. "Winning and losing are very important but this showed there are other things in life to put them into some kind of perspective.

"You can't forget about something like that when it's happened and of course we won't, but life goes on and the best thing is to get back to work, which is what Kalou did against Newcastle."

Chelsea's victory over Newcastle's kept their title hopes alive and Hiddink is hoping the Blues do not live to regret the defeat by Tottenham prior to the international break.

"We will try to keep winning and we have some home games coming up in the league so hopefully we can keep the pressure on the teams around us," said Hiddink. "I just hope we're not left to regret the points we dropped against Tottenham."