Could the “Bionic Man” leap back into action today? Avram Grant rejected John Terry’s claim this week that he may be fit to play in this afternoon’s FA Cup fifth-round tie against Huddersfield Town, but yesterday the Chelsea first-team coach conceded that his captain had made a recovery from a broken foot that bordered on the superhuman.

“He has surprised us all,” Grant said. “Maybe he is a bionic man. He recovers very quickly. Maybe he will be on the bench or even start, but we haven’t decided yet. Each injury depends on the person and he is very strong, not just mentally but also physically.”

Terry has not played since he fractured three bones in his right foot against Arsenal two months ago. Not that Chelsea seem to have found life hard without their leader: they have kept clean sheets in six of their past nine games and have not lost since the Barclays Premier League match at the Emirates Stadium.

However, Grant emphasised the defender’s importance. “He has a very positive influence,” the Israeli said. “I haven’t seen a captain like him. At Everton in the Carling Cup semi-final, he was more involved than if he’d have played.”

After Sunday’s draw with Liverpool, Grant said that the 27-year-old would be fit in about three weeks. However, if Terry appears tomorrow and has no adverse reaction, he will be in contention for the Carling Cup final against Tottenham Hotspur a week tomorrow. Grant is looking forward to the visit to Wembley and would dearly like another trip to the stadium via the FA Cup, a competition for which he has great affection.

“As a kid I remember seeing the Cup Final on black-and-white TV,” he said. The 52-year-old added that in his twenties and thirties, he travelled to Wembley as a paying customer to watch several finals. Not, one suspects, that his fondness will cause him to forget about Tuesday’s journey to Greece to face Olympiacos in the Champions League when he picks his team for this afternoon.

With Chelsea’s squad close to full strength again after the African Cup of Nations, Grant will have to leave out some of the players who performed so well in the past few weeks, but he is not worried about breeding disharmony. “I don’t think we upset people because the players at Chelsea are fully committed to the team,” he said. “I can never guarantee that I will make everybody happy, but they’re positive and that is what is important.”

He was surprisingly upbeat about Chelsea’s chances of winning a quadruple of trophies. “It’s not easy, but yes, in our position, it’s realistic,” he said. Less so is an upset today. One of Grant’s most vivid Cup memories is Sunderland’s win over Leeds United in the 1973 final. A victory for Huddersfield this afternoon would be an equally impressive shock.

They are fifteenth in Coca-Cola League One but knocked out Birmingham City in the third round and will know what to expect at Stamford Bridge, having lost 2-1 there in the FA Cup third round two years ago, sunk by an 82nd-minute winner from Eidur Gudjohnsen.

“We know what we are capable of and anything can happen,” Andy Ritchie, their manager, said. “We know it’s a massive game for us and a big ask to go there and get a result. They have some fantastic players and could easily make at least two international sides.

“It will be an excellent chance for our players to test themselves against the best in the country, if not the world.”

Despite the scale of the task, Ritchie has maintained a sense of humour. “We have limited the amount we watched Chelsea as we didn’t want to scare ourselves,” he said.