Chelsea midfielder Frank Lampard is confident their spate of injuries won't affect their Premiership start.

Lampard insists Chelsea have both the "character and experience" to ensure the absence of captain John Terry and striker Didier Drogba does not ruin the start to the Blues season.

Terry is understood to have tweaked his anterior cruciate ligament, which is at the back of the knee, and will be out of action for around four weeks meaning he will not be available for England's friendly against Germany.

Drogba, however, should return in approximately 10 days as his knee problem is a minor one.

Nevertheless, with Salomon Kalou, Andriy Shevchenko, Claude Makelele, Michael Ballack and Claudio Pizarro all struggling to be fit, not to mention both Glen Johnson and Florent Malouda picking up knocks at Wembley, manager Jose Mourinho clearly has plenty of concerns ahead of the season opener against Birmingham on Sunday.

"In terms of injuries, we are not in the best of shape. There are quite a few people in the treatment room, which is not ideal," said Lampard.

"But we are calling on a bit of character early and have got a very strong group.

"We all know our plans and our ambitions. We are all getting ready for it now.

"We have got a strong team with a lot of personalities and have a lot of experience from years gone by. The players we have brought in also have experience, so we can go into the season with confidence."

Lampard added: "We have got more cover for John now than last season. I think Ben Haim did very well.

"Hopefully we will not miss John that much until he can be fit. Hopefully, that will not be too long because it is quite a small injury in terms of his knee.

"The strength John has got in himself, I am sure he will be back out there in a couple of weeks.

"We are all upset if we have got major players who are not playing - but you cannot cry about it, you just have to deal with it."