John Terry believes footballers should play through flu and illness

Martin Macdonald

• 26 Feb 2026 04:15 CST
• 4 min read

News

John Terry has revealed that he was 100% for for just five games during his entire Chelsea career and insists he played through numerous ailments to help the team.

The former Chelsea captain is recognised as one of the best centre-backs in the history of the Premier League and had a glittering career with the Blues, winning five Premier League titles, one Champions League, five FA Cups, three League Cups and one Europa League.

He still works with the club, putting in some coaching work in their academy.

Nobody has made more Premier League appearances for Chelsea than Terry, and that's because, according to him, it would take something significant for him to miss matches.

“I was very old school. If I was feeling ill or sick I would just go out and get on with it, I don’t think people should miss matches due to illness – it doesn’t sit right with me," he said on the Double Tops podcast.

"I played 717 games for Chelsea... I was 100% fit for five games" 😳

John Terry on how many games he played whilst unfit/ill. This is crazy.@doubletopspod pic.twitter.com/tlYHaFfUya

— Out of Context Football Manager (@nocontextfm1) February 25, 2026

“Everyone says ‘oh you won’t be at your peak if you’re ill’, but you don’t know that until you get out there and give it a crack.

“I can’t tell you the amount of injections that I had to get through the next game, but that’s because I wanted to play in every single one. I played 717 games for Chelsea and I could say, genuinely, I was 100% fit for five of them.

“When I went into a game, I rarely didn’t have a rib, arm, leg, ankle or some sort of injury – something always hurt. That was just part of being a professional footballer and you can’t sit it out because you’re ill.

“The games come so thick and fast and you can’t afford to miss one. The player who might come in to replace you might not be at your level and in order to win titles and constantly compete, you need to be there, no matter what.”

Terry's Chelsea frustrations

Terry has never hidden a desire to one day manage Chelsea but so far his only senior coaching role has been as an assistant to Dean Smith at Aston Villa. His role at the academy is as a consultant and not full-time.

He feels he should have been part of the team that temporarily took over from Enzo Maresca after the Italian was sacked. Calum McFarlane oversaw a couple of matches and even earned a point against Manchester City.

"(I wasn't) annoyed, probably more frustrated because I was certainly part of that U21s group that went over," Terry said.

"So even if I didn't take the team. Obviously, Calum took the team and did really well. Got a result out of the game.

"I feel like I should have been part of them. Now, listen. People have got to make decisions. I love it when people make decisions and they go yes or no. And clearly ownership or whoever made those decisions, the sporting directors have gone 'no', not to include me for whatever reason - why, I don't know."

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