Yuri Zhirkov hopes Andriy Shevchenko stays with Chelsea to help him settle in London.

Zhirkov has grown close to Chelsea's fellow Russian-speakers Shevchenko and Branislav Ivanovic, who are helping him get over a frustrating time on the sidelines.

"Now Ivanovic and Shevchenko will return (from international duty) and cheer me up. Both don't stop joking," he said.

"If, for example, I go to a restaurant it is usually with them. But the other Chelsea players, it seems, already know about me.

"When I returned to the training ground, everyone asked how I'm doing and wished me a speedy recovery.

"And before the Community Shield, someone brought a magazine with a photo of me and Inna. It was taken for a poster of Russia players with their wives and is not supposed to be published, but it has already turned up in England somehow. After all that, they call me 'The Model'."