John Terry's participation in Saturday's potentially combustible west London derby at Queens Park Rangers remains in some doubt as the centre-half continues to undergo treatment on his injured right ankle at Chelsea.

The England defender suffered the injury during last Friday's World Cup qualifying victory in Moldova, resisting the chance to leave the field of play until two minutes from the end of the game, by which time the visitors led 5-0. The damage sustained in Chisinau – he initially suffered a kick then twisted his ankle in a second-half fall – ruled him out of game against UkraiTuesday'sne, with the centre-half instead spending more time in rehabilitation at Cobham.

Ashley Cole, who suffered an ankle injury during Chelsea's European Super Cup defeat to Atlético Madrid which ruled him out of both England fixtures, was also absent from the Chelsea shadow squad which trained on Tuesday. This also renders him a doubt for the QPR game given the relative lack of preparation time available to Roberto Di Matteo ahead of the Loftus Road encounter.

Needless to say, Cole and Terry will be doing all they can to get fit for the QPR match, which will be the first meeting of the teams since Terry was found not guilty of using a racial slur against the hosts' Anton Ferdinand in the corresponding fixture last October. The QPR defender is expected to have recovered fully from a shoulder injury suffered in the 3-1 defeat by Manchester City this month, having trained with Mark Hughes's squad on Tuesday .

Terry remains the subject of a Football Association investigation, likely to be heard this month by an independent regulatory commission, having denied the charges.

The Premier League still intends to instigate the usual pre-match handshake ahead of Saturday's derby – it was abandoned by the Football Association for the FA Cup tie between the sides in January, and the league fixture at Stamford Bridge in April, with legal proceedings on-going – though it is understood Ferdinand will not shake the Chelsea's captain's hand. There also remains the possibility that the QPR player will refuse to shake Cole's hand given that the full-back gave evidence on Terry's behalf at Westminster Magistrates' Court in July.

The potential for snubs during the pre-match handshake depends, of course, on whether Cole and Terry play. Despite his desire to make the game, the Chelsea captain, in particular, will be mindful of what happened to him in that FA Cup fourth-round game at Loftus Road last season.

Terry was so desperate to play that he went into the game carrying a knee complaint picked up in the third-round defeat of Portsmouth at Stamford Bridge and ended up exacerbating the injury. As a result the defender was ruled out for six weeks. By the time Terry returned in mid-March for a slender victory over Stoke City, André Villas-Boas had been sacked as manager.