West Brom's Jonas Olsson refused to write off John Terry and believes the Chelsea skipper's qualities are timeless.
The defender believes the former England captain is too good to be left out at the champions for long.
Terry was hauled off at half time of last week's 3-0 defeat at Manchester City and boss Jose Mourinho has not given any guarantees he will return at The Hawthorns on Sunday.
Terry played every minute for Chelsea as they won the Premier League last term and Olsson backed him to return.
The Sweden international said: "My take on that, is in football you are only as good as your last game but he had an absolutely amazing year last year, and I think he will have a few more at this level too, for sure.
"If you play every minute of every game for one season, and then two months later you're too old, that doesn't sound right, does it? I think he is too good not to be back in the team all the time.
"The will to win, the determination to get your head on the ball, those things are timeless.
"I would say so. Only when you have lost that, the will to go through walls to win, then it is time to think about something else. Physically you have to accept that with age it becomes harder.
"Maybe you won't lose pace, but you have to spend more hours in the gym, more on the treadmill. In the game situation you don't lose too much, but mentally you have to still have the desire.''
Olsson is expected to keep his place ahead of Joleon Lescott after replacing him for the Baggies' 0-0 draw at Watford last week while £12 million striker Salomon Rondon could make his home debut.
Chelsea are looking for their first victory of the season but Olsson has nothing but admiration for boss Mourinho.
He said: "As a manager and as a personality. You need -- football is entertainment and you need big personalities like Mourinho and [Fabio] Capello, like [Zlatan] Ibrahimovic -- that's what you need in any type of entertainment.
"As a manager his record speaks for itself. I have a big admiration for him."