O'Leary certain Venables can succeed at Leeds

Terry Venables is in a no-lose situation at Leeds, according to his predecessor David O'Leary.

The club's troubles – notably the £9m sale of Jonathan Woodgate to Newcastle United – have caused Venables to consider his future. But O'Leary believes whatever the former England manager decides to do, he is on to a winner.

"I don't think Terry can lose now. The pressure has been taken off and everything has been deflected away from him," said O'Leary. "I don't think he can go wrong, no matter what he does. I hope he does well as I want the players to do well."

O'Leary, who is anxious to get back in the game with a club "of potential and ambition", is still bitter at reports he lost the dressing room at Elland Road before his dismissal.

"That is totally untrue and hurt me a great deal," he said. "They are a great bunch of people, we had a good spirit and came through some difficult things."

O'Leary, who settled a compensation claim with the club last week, remains baffled at his sacking. "I was shocked when I went in and Mr Ridsdale told me I was sacked. I thought I was doing a good job and still don't know what the point was. People talk about me spending £90m, but nobody says I recouped over £70m. I don't think I left a bad £20m team.

The Birmingham midfielder, Aliou Cissé, is facing a lengthy spell out of action after damaging ankle ligaments in training.

The Senegal captain had been expected to return to action in Saturday's home Premiership game with Chelsea after being out for three weeks with a calf problem. But he suffered the ankle setback in training on Friday and the Blues manager, Steve Bruce, is anticipating it will rule him out for several weeks.

Cissé, who had formed an effective partnership with Robbie Savage in the centre of midfield, will have further scans on Monday to determine the extent of the injury.

Bruce said: "Cissé had been perfectly fit in terms of recovering from his calf, but then did something to his ankle in training on Friday. He went for a x-ray which revealed no breaks, but he is having further scans after the weekend and we believe he has ankle ligament damage.

"It is going to set him back a good few weeks. We will know more on Monday or Tuesday."