Chelsea have confirmed defender Thiago Silva suffered knee ligament damage during Sunday's 2-0 defeat against Tottenham.

The 38-year-old centre-back limped off after just 19 minutes during the Super Sunday game and was replaced by Wesley Fofana.

Chelsea have given no official timeframe on his return but reports claim the defender could be out for as long as six weeks.

A Chelsea statement read: "Having sustained a knee injury during the first half of Sunday's match against Tottenham Hotspur, Thiago underwent further assessment and a scan on his return to the training centre on Monday.

"Scan results from those assessments have confirmed damage to Thiago's knee ligaments and he will now work closely with the club's medical department during his rehabilitation to return to action as soon as possible."

A time frame of six weeks would rule Silva out of Chelsea's crucial Champions League last-16 second leg against Borussia Dortmund, and the Brazil defender would also be a doubt for the quarter-finals should the Blues get through.

As well as Fofana, Graham Potter's side have Kalidou Koulibaly, Trevoh Chalobah and Benoit Badiashile as centre-back options - but the latter is not eligible to play in the Champions League.

Former Chelsea striker Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink spoke of Thiago Silva's importance to Chelsea on Sky Sports in the wake of their defeat at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

"For me, after Thiago left the pitch, the level of Chelsea dropped," he said after the game. "They started the game ever so well, but then he went off and it went a little bit chaotic."

Hasselbaink underlined the value of the Brazil defender's leadership and insisted Chelsea's youngers players must learn to step up and shoulder more responsibility when he is not there.

"The team is very young, and when something goes wrong, you can see that certain individuals feel a little bit sorry for themselves," he added. "That's the feeling that I get.

"That is where they need to step out of it, as quickly as possible, because they can still get sixth or seventh and get into Europe.

"They need to realise that the commitment needs to be for 95 minutes, not just for 20 minutes."

Saturday March 4: Leeds (H) - Premier League, kick-off 3pm

Tuesday March 7: Borussia Dortmund (H) - Champions League, kick-off 8pm

Saturday March 11: Leicester City (A) - Premier League, kick-off 3pm

Saturday March 18: Everton (H) - Premier League, kick-off 5.30pm - live on Sky Sports

Saturday April 1: Aston Villa (H) - Premier League, kick-off 5.30pm - live on Sky Sports

Chelsea head coach Potter is under pressure following a run of poor form at Stamford Bridge - but he still has the support of at least one of the club's owners.

Potter's side sit 10th in the Premier League table and 14 points behind fourth-placed Tottenham and have won just once in their last 11 matches in all competitions - scoring four goals in that time - while they have failed to record a victory in any away match since October 16.

Defeat at Tottenham on Sunday increased the scrutiny on Potter's position, but the feeling is that changing managers now would be a step backwards, not forwards, for the Blues, especially because of the investment made in new players and building a new structure around the head coach.

Chairman Todd Boehly, who led the consortium which completed the £4.25bn takeover last May, shares voting rights equally with Clearlake Capital, a Californian investment fund which owns the majority of shares in Chelsea.

Behdad Ehgbali and Jose E Feliciano, co-founders of Clearlake, represent the investment fund at Chelsea.

Since the arrival of new Boehly-Clearlake Capital ownership at Stamford Bridge, Chelsea have spent more than £600m in bringing in 19 new players to the squad, including Argentina midfielder Enzo Fernandez for a British transfer record fee of £106.8m