LONDON -- Diego Costa and Branislav Ivanovic will miss Chelsea's Premier League match against Liverpool on Wednesday and are doubts to be fit for Sunday's final-day clash against newly-crowned champions Leicester City at Stamford Bridge, interim manager Guus Hiddink has confirmed.
Costa aggravated a persistent hamstring injury in training this week, while Ivanovic was substituted 68 minutes into Chelsea's 3-2 defeat to Sunderland at the Stadium of Light on Sunday with a groin problem.
Pedro Rodriguez also missed training on Monday as he flew to Milan for surgery on a broken nose sustained after falling over at home, but Chelsea have not ruled out the possibility of the winger playing in a protective face mask against Liverpool.
"Ivanovic is out with a groin injury, Costa has a hamstring [injury] and is out," Hiddink said. "Pedro is not out but he has not trained. He had a broken nose at home. He had a little accident. Costa is out probably for the weekend [against Leicester]."
Ivanovic's absence creates a defensive headache for Hiddink, with captain John Terry suspended for Chelsea's final two Premier League matches after his red card against Sunderland. January signing Matt Miazga is likeliest to step in, though academy prospect Fikayo Tomori will also make the trip to Merseyside.
Fellow youngsters Kasey Palmer and Tammy Abraham joined in first-team training in recent days along with Tomori and could also be involved, despite Hiddink's insistence prior to the Sunderland defeat that selecting too many academy stars "would not be fair" to Chelsea's Premier League opponents.
Terry is not expected to travel with his Chelsea teammates to Liverpool but continues to participate in training sessions at Cobham, despite the fact that his season is already over -- a fact that Hiddink believes underlines his captain's professionalism and commitment.
"He likes to train," Hiddink said of Terry. "Even if this sanction [ban] was not there and he would have stopped, players want to go on. The body says that at certain moments: 'Come on, get on the ball, get moving.'
"We have several players who love to be on the pitch. One name, for instance, is [Cesar] Azpilicueta who is very energetic and loves being on the pitch every day. He is always on the pitch at 10:10 ahead of a 10:30 start. He loves working every day.
"Most of them do. Others need to be pushed a bit to get going, but many have that in their nature, that drive. John also has that, very much so."