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Injuries have blighted Chelsea’s build-up to the start of the Barclays Premier League season and another - to Michael Essien, the midfield player - marred an otherwise stirring victory over Birmingham City at Stamford Bridge yesterday. Essien is a doubt, with a knee ligament strain, for the match against Reading at the Madejski Stadium on Wednesday evening.

After a stint as emergency centre back last season, Essien returned to his favoured position – as the holding player in front of the back four – against Birmingham. He produced a commanding performance and struck Chelsea’s winner in their 3-2 triumph, albeit with the aid of a fluffed attempted save by Colin Doyle, the Birmingham goalkeeper.

However, José Mourinho, the Chelsea manager, was forced to replace Essien with John Obi Mikel in the 69th minute. “Michael has a ligament problem with his knee,” Mourinho said. “He was limping, he was in pain, so he had to come off. Will he be ready for Wednesday? I don’t really know yet.”

Chelsea had to make do yesterday without a number of injured players, including John Terry, their captain, Andriy Shevchenko and Michael Ballack. Mourinho confirmed that they were not due to return to training today and were unlikely to be fit for the midweek trip to Berkshire.

However, Claude Makelele, the midfield player, and Paulo Ferreira, the right back, are due back at the Cobham training ground this morning and could be drafted into the squad for Reading.

If Essien does not recover, Mikel is his most likely replacement at the Madejski Stadium. “I see no reason for any big rotation,” Mourinho said.

Shaun Wright-Phillips, the right winger, should start after an exhilarating display against Birmingham. He has not had the best of fortunes since his move from Manchester City two years ago – and played only infrequently in his first campaign in West London – but Mourinho was generous with his praise for him.

“It’s not been easy for Shaun, but he showed a big improvement in the second season and has been good in this preseason,” the Portuguese said. “He deserves good things. For some players, when they have one bad season, they maybe want to leave. There is pressure and question marks playing at a big club.

“But Shaun is playing well now. The wingers [Wright-Phillips and Malouda] produced incredible football, the strikers played with great dynamics and we played good attacking football.”

Wright-Phillips felt at ease in the new expansive game plan of Mourinho, which uses wingers on both flanks. “We played it a lot in preseason and it seems to be working,” Wright-Phillips said. “The boss has given me the chance, we’ve practised in training and we all know what is expected of each other. It’s going well.”