Jose Bosingwa, Chelsea's new right-back, has been ruled out for at least three weeks after tearing a thigh muscle 20 minutes into his debut in last week's friendly against Guangzhou Pharmaceutical.
The 25-year-old, who cost £16.2m when he arrived from Porto last month, underwent a scan in Macau on Friday and although his club described the problem as 'minor', the decision was made to send the Portugal international back to England for treatment. 'He is out for two weeks minimum for treatment and he won't be able to play for three weeks,' said Luiz Felipe Scolari, the Chelsea manager. 'At the moment, he is out of the first game against Portsmouth.'
Bosingwa left before yesterday's 7-0 win over Chengdu Blades, although the Chelsea squad were strengthened following England's exit from the Uefa Under-19 championship, as 19-year-old Scott Sinclair joined up in readiness for their friendly against a Malaysia XI in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday. Chelsea then travel to Moscow to face Lokomotiv and Milan or Sevilla in the Railway Cup, a schedule which has reportedly left several senior players unhappy.
'These games are important for me,' Scolari said. 'If I was able to choose the opposition, I would choose this team [Chengdu Blades] at this time in our pre-season. I do not want to play against strong teams, because my players are not fully match fit.
'Six, seven or eight substitutions in this type of game is normal. If I was at the training ground at Cobham, I would do the same against the teams we play there.
'Because I am new to Chelsea, I need to learn about my players. I have an idea about my players, but I need to work every day with them to learn more. For us, this is match training. We are here not only to play games, but for other things and for me it is better as I build my team for the games in Russia, and after Russia for the first game, against Portsmouth.'
Aston Villa defender Wilfred Bouma suffered a suspected broken leg early in his side's Intertoto Cup match with Odense last night. The club have completed the signing of Brad Friedel from Blackburn for an undisclosed fee, understood to be around £2.5m. Manchester City did express late interest in the American, but Friedel confirmed his intention to join Villa, the 37-year-old former United States goalkeeper signing a three-year deal.
Friedel, a team-mate of the newly arrived Blackburn manager Paul Ince at Liverpool in the late Nineties, made 287 league appearances for Rovers after signing in November 2000, scoring a goal in open play at Charlton, and will be replaced by 28-year-old Paul Robinson, whose £3.5m transfer from Tottenham on Friday got the ball rolling.
Stoke are to pay Wolves £3m for Seyi Olofinjana, a 28-year-old Nigeria international, who arrives on a four-year deal. 'Seyi is a great acquisition for this football club and I am delighted he chose to join us ahead of several other top-flight clubs,' said Tony Pulis, the Stoke manager. 'He is a player we think will enhance the squad and again it shows our ambitions to be competitive in the Premier League.'
Olofinjana becomes the second most expensive purchase in Stoke's history, within days of Dave Kitson's arrival from Reading for £5.5m. 'Seyi's a Premier League player and if he gets the opportunity, he'll go on,' said the Wolves manager Mick McCarthy. 'Everyone I've spoken to, I've said "take him" because if I was a Premier League manager, I'd sign him. He's that good.'
Portsmouth had an eventful start to their pre-season trip after their pilot aborted his landing in Abuja, Nigeria, where they will face Manchester United this afternoon. Their Airbus 319 was close to touching down when he abandoned the descent after failing to gain clearance from the control tower. The plane circled for half an hour or so in stormy conditions before a successful landing was made.
'We were just above the runway when the pilot suddenly pulled the plane out of the landing and back up in the sky,' said Pompey defender Linvoy Primus. 'We were all shocked. No one knew what was happening. There had been no warning that there was a problem. After circling for half an hour in lightning, he then managed to get us down safely.'
