LONDON -- Guus Hiddink believes John Terry still has a valuable role to play at Chelsea as a mentor to the club's talented academy youngsters.
Terry, who is expected to make his first-team return from an Achilles injury when Chelsea face Tottenham Hotspur on Monday night, is set to leave Stamford Bridge at the end of this season unless he is offered an extension to his current contract, which expires this summer.
The departure of Terry, the last remaining member of the spine that propelled Chelsea to the club's greatest-ever era, is widely feared by supporters after the worst season since Roman Abramovich's takeover in 2003, and Hiddink has already admitted that the current squad lacks the kind of leadership he encountered in his first interim spell as manager in 2009.
The Dutchman says that Terry, who watched Chelsea U18s win their third successive FA Youth Cup at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday and is a regular presence at academy matches -- remains as determined to contribute on the pitch as ever, and believes that the 35-year-old's attitude and vast experience make him the perfect role model for Ruben Loftus-Cheek and others.
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"It's a personal opinion but when you have the academy and players like him, like Lampard, like Drogba, like Ballack in the area, they can have their influence within the club as well -- on development of young players or in other parts of the club," Hiddink said.
"I think it's always good to have this experience if they have a good attitude, and the guys I mentioned do. We have that at Ajax and PSV.
"If they have the right attitude to give and not to take, because they have had a huge career, the good ones always have the attitude to give also their experience to younger players or in other sections of the club."
Terry has not featured for Chelsea since last month's 2-2 draw at Stamford Bridge after aggravating his Achilles problem. Asked how his captain had coped with being out of the team, Hiddink replied: "He was almost unapproachable when he got his physical setback. That shows his desire to play.
"He's not a player who says 'OK, it's the end of my career, or maybe I have one or two years more'. The desire is there, and you see it in training sessions as well.
"He's always motivated. I never had one training session with him -- even in my previous spell with different players -- where I said 'Hey, John, today you were not there'. He was always there.
"In training he's tackling [the same] whether it's one day before the game or one or two days after the game. I have to put the brake on a bit, which means the desire is still high."