John Terry has spoken about the injury that will see him miss two England Euro 2012 qualifiers and also about the Chelsea defence's tight start to the season.

On Saturday night it was stated that the Chelsea skipper requires a period of rest and rehabilitation to overcome some muscle problems and he has told Chelsea TV about the origin of the injury.

'I have had a bit of a problem since the World Cup and I was hoping after the World Cup that I would have two weeks off and it would completely go away,' he said.

'But that wasn't the case and coming back working hard, it came back on. I played the last England game but I had to come off at half-time because of it. I have not made it public but I have been struggling with it and maybe I just need 10 days rest to fully get over it because it could impact on my season.'

The muscle injuries weren't the reason Terry was hobbling for part of the second-half against Stoke, that was due to a clash of knees in a challenge, and Terry was able to play well enough to set up Florent Malouda's opening goal and contribute to a third clean sheet in a row.

'As strikers pride themselves on scoring goals, we pride ourselves on not conceding,' he declared.

'Alex has been brilliant and made four great blocks in the last two games and Big Pete has made some good saves as well, so we are all helping and covering round which is the minimum we ask of each other.

'A forward like [Stoke's] Kenwyne Jones can win headers and it is important the other centre-half is covering round and the same goes for Ashley Cole and Paulo Ferreira and they did it very well.

'But it is not just the back four or five, it is the whole team because when you play a team like Stoke, they can cause problems from throw-ins and free kicks and they put people in the box, and players like Didier and Nico are the first people in there organising, getting our shape right and that is really important to us.'

Terry also told the club's own channel of his admiration for the way another regular in the side has started the season.

'John Mikel Obi had a really good pre-season and looks slimmer. He has done a bit of weights and really looks fit. We have missed Michael Essien the last couple of years and there is competition now. I think John feels that with Ramires coming in and Michael coming back, and he feels he needs to step it up.

'He had a great season last year and the season before that but again he has kicked on which is important for the young players to do.'