Drogba, who watched Chelsea's 7-1 demolition of Aston Villa last week from the sanctuary of the subs' bench, has been carrying the injury for some time. But that has not stopped the 32-year-old from bagging 30 goals this season and he will spearhead Chelsea's attack in their top-of-the-table confrontation with Manchester United at Old Trafford on Saturday. United will be without their leading scorer Wayne Rooney because of his ankle ligament injury, but Ancelotti revealed that his own goal machine has been playing through the pain barrier in recent months and it could eventually lead to corrective surgery before the World Cup finals this summer. "Drogba has been living with this problem for three or four months but it is not a big problem," revealed Ancelotti. "Sometimes he has problems after the game but during the week he doesn't have any difficulty. "He will not need surgery now and if he needs to have an operation at the end of the season he will be ready in seven days because it will be a very little surgery - but I don't know if he will need to have that surgery. "He was a little bit tired before the last game against Aston Villa so I didn't want to take the risk to put him on the pitch but now he is fit and he has to play." Chelsea are the top scorers in the Premier League with 82 goals, 52 of them scored at home, and have smashed 12 in their last two games. But despite hitting seven twice in home league games this season, Ancelotti is reluctant to take on the mantle of being a coach who puts forward play first. "I don't consider myself an attacking coach," added the Italian. "I am Italian and the fortune of Italian football is defensively. I like balance. I am a balanced coach. "This is our aim, to attack and play football, but the first thing is to maintain balance because I don't like to concede a goal. The easy way to score is a counter-attack. In Italy the team that won Serie A was not the team that scored more goals, it was the team that conceded the least." United, even without Rooney, will be a difficult team to overcome in front of their own fans at Old Trafford and Ancelotti is under no illusions about the size of the task confronting him. Chelsea, a point behind United, need a victory to regain pole position at the top of the table and while a draw will be adequate, defeat is unthinkable. "We want to play our football and we want to keep control of the game but it will be difficult," added Ancelotti. "Manchester United want to do the same, they play at home and they will want to keep control of the game. This is the fight we will face. "United don't give a lot of chances to the opponents to score. They are very compact and able to counter-attack. "I have played against Manchester United a lot of times in the past so I know Sir Alex Ferguson's team very well. "He is a very good coach. Also this year they had a lot problems, they were without Nemanja Vidic and Rio Ferdinand at the start of the season but they maintained their style of play. They have a very clear identity and Sir Alex has done a great job, everybody knows this." Frank Lampard hit four goals in the rout of Villa and Ancelotti has been surprised by the player since he took over as coach at Stamford Bridge. "Lampard is a very dangerous midfielder," added Ancelotti. "It is difficult to block him because he is a very dynamic player and he gets into the box at the right moment. "He is a midfielder who scores 20 goals every season and he is unique in that respect. I was surprised by him. I knew him but not with the timing into the box and that is his most important quality. "We can use this quality to beat United but it is not enough to use just Lampard. We have other qualities and want to use them all."
