Cech may make his return on the second leg of the Champions League quarter-final against the Turkish side Fenerbahce.

“Until yesterday Cech had made a lot of improvement and we need to see where he is at the end of the recovery period,” Grant said. “He is better than 50-50, he is almost ready. It will be a medical decision. But we have other goalkeepers who have done a good job this year.”

In another incident, Grant has denied the reports of a fight with midfielder Frank Lampard after the England International’s furious reaction when he was substituted in the 2-1 loss against Fenerbahce in Turkey.

“Frank is a very passionate player. He was very disappointed that Fenerbahce had equalised,” said the Israeli coach. “I shook hands with Frank. I like passionate players. If his reaction was good or not, it is an internal matter.

“The discipline at Chelsea has been very good since I’ve been here. I speak with all the players, but I speak about the game and not something else. Everybody was disappointed. It was one of our best performances but we lost the game so he wanted to understand why, that’s all.”

Gareth Southgate feared that Downing might leave his home-town club in search of glory in European competitions. His decision to stay in Middlebrough is a huge boost in confidence for his manager.

Last week he revealed that the arrival of £12m striker Alfonso Alvez has changed his decision to stay at the club. “I had told the club I didn’t want to stand still. Signing Alves shows how ambitious we are,” he said. “This is where I want to be. The chairman [Steve Gibson] has proved again just how much he wants this club to go forward.”