Avram Grant is considering omitting John Terry from the Carling Cup final against Tottenham Hotspur. The Chelsea captain has been given no assurances that he will return to lead the side at Wembley on Sunday and has confided in teammates his fears that he will not play.

Grant sprang a surprise by leaving out Terry and Frank Lampard for the Champions League tie against Olympiacos on Tuesday, but dropping either at Wembley would be an even bigger shock. Announcing his side in Athens, the first-team coach explained to his players that the team he picked should not be regarded as his first XI and he would continue to chop and change throughout the season, but did not say that Terry and Lampard would automatically return against Tottenham.

Terry fears that if Grant had intended to pick him at the weekend, he would have featured against Olympiacos as he is in need of playing time to improve his match fitness. He has had only 90 minutes – in an FA Cup fifth-round win over Huddersfield Town – since breaking three bones in his right foot in a Barclays Premier League match against Arsenal in December.

Grant’s willingness to keep Terry guessing represents a significant change in policy at Chelsea from the days of José Mourinho, his predecessor, when the leading players were guaranteed to play whether they were 100 per cent fit or not. The Israeli – who maintained a dignified silence yesterday after anti-Semitic death threats were sent to the club’s training ground – takes a different approach and has resolved to pick the team on the basis of form and fitness rather than reputation.

In Terry’s absence, Grant has been impressed with the performances of Alex, the Brazil defender who again excelled alongside Ricardo Carvalho in the goalless draw with Olympiacos, and believes he deserves to stay in the team. Terry can win his place back by impressing in training this week, but being overlooked for such a showpiece occasion would represent a huge blow, particularly as he was unable to collect the Carling Cup last season after being injured in the final against Arsenal and taken to hospital suffering from concussion.

Lampard, who lifted the trophy in his absence, is more confident of his place, but yesterday he expressed his frustration at being left out in Greece. Like Terry, he has only just returned from a lengthy absence, because of a thigh injury. “I felt fresh but the manager didn’t want to take a chance on me and John and we were in the same boat,” he said. “It’s a long season and there are a lot of important games to come.

“We understood the reasons for not playing. You have to be mature as a professional and understand that, but it doesn’t mean you can’t be frustrated and want to play.”

Lampard, who set a Premiership record of 164 consecutive appearances between 2001 and 2005, also called on Grant to establish a settled team. “I don’t know how much rotation there’ll be in the future, but it’s important we get a settled team in the run-in,” he said. “Any good team I’ve been involved in has had a pretty settled lineup and it’ll be down to the manager to find that.

“I don’t want to miss any more games. I think we’d have been fresh anyway, because a cup final against Tottenham is a huge game.”