Cahill faces fitness fight for final

Cahill faces fitness fight for final

Published Apr. 25, 2012 1:00 a.m. ET

Gary Cahill is praying that the injury he picked up at Barcelona will not keep him out of the Champions League final.

The England international was forced off early on in Chelsea's victory at the Camp Nou, with the game still goalless, when he hurt his hamstring.

With John Terry sent off and Branislav Ivanovic booked, meaning both are now suspended, Cahill will definitely start the final in Munich on May 19 if fit.

"I'm hoping it's not as bad as we first thought," he told Sky Sports News.

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"I just felt a pop in my hamstring.

"But it's high up, which they tell me is probably better than it being right in the middle.

"I just pray the scan's all right."

Cahill admitted he and Terry went through agony watching the game on television.

"I was devastated that I had no more part to play in the game and, when I looked up and saw JT come through the door, I'll be honest, I probably feared the worst," he said.

"But the lads were absolutely outstanding, the way they stuck together and ground out the result. It was amazing. Phenomenal, absolutely phenomenal.

"I was about four times more nervous than playing, watching the game, just in the changing room praying that it would go all right and, luckily, in the end it did."

Having seen Lionel Messi smash the crossbar with a penalty and also hit the post in the second half, Cahill and Terry's victory jig began when Fernando Torres came off the bench to score the tie's clinching goal.

"Unbelievable, watching it on the screens," Cahill said. "We nearly took the roof off when that went in."
 

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