The France striker has been playing with a bruised toe in recent matches and was in the Chelsea side that lost 1-0 to Tottenham on Saturday.

That result all but ended their interest in the Barclays Premier League title race, while today it was announced Anelka has pulled out of the France squad for their World Cup double-header against Lithuania.

Chelsea have yet to confirm how long Anelka will be sidelined for, but Paris St Germain striker Guillaume Hoarau has been called up to replace him by France coach Raymond Domenech.

Anelka is now unlikely to be available for the first leg of their UEFA Champions League quarter-final against former club Liverpool at Anfield.

Meanwhile, goalkeeper Petr Cech believes Chelsea must take advantage of playing the opening leg of their European tie away from home.

The Blues have been drawn to face Liverpool for a fifth successive year and Cech revealed he had a sneaking feeling they would be paired together yet again prior to the draw.

The winners of Chelsea's clash with Liverpool will face either Barcelona or Bayern Munich in the semi-finals.

"I was saying to myself if the irony of fate would work and we would play Barcelona in the quarter-final and then Liverpool in the semis. And it has turned out to be exactly the opposite case," said Cech.

"Maybe it is a pity that Liverpool, Barca and Bayern are all teams we have played against in the Champions League recently, on the other hand, they are all teams of top quality, so our fans can be satisfied with the draw.

"Also, and now I am anticipating, if we should succeed in the Champions League, we can then say we have eliminated the giants of European football."

Cech is expecting a tight contest against Liverpool but insists they can turn the tie in their favour with an away goal on Merseyside.

He said: "I think the away game will be very important. The mathematics is clear - an away goal can decide this tie."

Chelsea's defeat on Saturday has left interim coach Guus Hiddink looking ahead to both their the FA Cup and Champions League campaigns.

The Dutchman insists that while the Blues will battle on until it is mathematically impossible for them to win the title, Manchester United remain favourites.

Liverpool cut United's lead at the top to just one point after their 5-0 drubbing of Aston Villa yesterday.

But Sir Alex Ferguson's men still have a game in hand and despite their second successive defeat against Fulham, Hiddink continues to believe it will be a difficult task to dislodge them.

Chelsea travel to Newcastle in their next away fixture in the league but then face Liverpool at Anfield in the Champions League.

Hiddink won the European Cup with PSV Eindhoven and admits it will be a dream to win it again with Chelsea.

"I won that as a very young manager with PSV and it would be the ideal scenario at the end, because I am getting a little bit grey, to get it with Chelsea again," he said.

"That would be a dream fulfilled."