Chelsea have suffered another midfield blow with Joe Cole likely to miss tomorrow's showdown at Manchester United.

The Mirror says Cole was forced to pull out of yesterday's training session at Chelsea's Cobham base with a back problem.

The injury is likely to rule the England man out of tomorrow's game and hand Nicolas Anelka a reprieve.

More worryingly for Cole and his fading World Cup hopes, it means he will waste a massive chance to impress Fabio Capello.

Cole is running out of time to make June's flight to South Africa after a disappointing campaign but has shown glimpses of a potential return to form in the wins over Portsmouth and Aston Villa.

A good display at United could have made a difference to Capello and strengthened his hand in the stalled contract negotiations with the Stamford Bridge hierarchy.

But those hopes now seem likely to be scuppered, with Cole unlikely to be on this afternoon's flight to Manchester.