Guus Hiddink has no doubt that John Terry is capable of continuing his career at Chelsea next season, but will have no influence over the captain's future.
Terry's contract expires at the end of the season and he is yet to be sign a new one, meaning he may have played his last game for Chelsea after a red card in Saturday's 3-2 defeat at Sunderland resulted in a two-match ban that covers the rest of the Premier League campaign.
Hiddink will leave his role as interim manager to be replaced by Antonio Conte next season, but neither he nor Chelsea's board have offered a definitive answer on Terry's future.
And Hiddink says he remains none the wiser about what direction the club will take. "When I make a judgement on how he plays and his fitness, at his age, then he's able to play and continue," the Dutchman said at a news conference ahead of Wednesday's trip to Liverpool.
"But it's up to the club, not for me to make declarations on that.
"When you come on the pitch for training after being sent off it's not the most beautiful thing, of course. In training he started to lift up his morale and trained okay. Of course not being there in the last two games is a blow for him and for us of course as well.
"Yeah, that could have been the last game that's not up to me [to decide]."
Hiddink also stated that he will not be providing a report on Terry or any player for successor Conte, as he believes the former Juventus coach is capable of making his own judgement. "I don't want to [provide reports], I didn't want them when I joined," he added.
"Him [Conte] and his assistants will be watching videos, they might watch live and visit I don't know.
"For me, and I told this to the players as well, I want fair treatment for the players. I won't give judgement because I have to work with them now, on top of that he is clever enough to make his own decisions on his [Terry's] future."
Asked whether Terry would make a good coach in the future, Hiddink added: "The other day we were sitting next each other before the game in Bournemouth and we discussed about sitting on that spot. It felt good.
"John is very keen - he has always been a leader and tactically you can always rely on him. He can make that step, though you need time to switch off from your career in my experience."
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