Chelsea's options at centre-half for next month's Champions League final against Bayern Munich have been left threadbare amid fears that Gary Cahill may not recover from the hamstring injury sustained at Barcelona in time to feature in the showpiece on 19 May.

Cahill, who has described feeling a "pop" in the back of his thigh as he stretched into an early challenge at the Camp Nou, lasted only 12 minutes of the semi-final and scans undertaken back at Cobham confirm there is significant damage to the hamstring. The interim first-team coach, Roberto Di Matteo, was cagey over Cahill's prospects on Friday but there is an acceptance at the club that the England defender now faces a race to be fit and is a major doubt for the game at the Allianz Arena.

"We hope, and we will try, to get him back fit as soon as possible," said Di Matteo. "But at the moment it's difficult to put a date on it. It's too early to clarify that. We'll have to see how his injury improves on a daily basis. At the moment all we can say is we hope that he'll recover as quickly as possible. That's our hope and our aim. When he's going to be fit, we can't say."

The loss of the £7m January signing from Bolton would constitute a considerable blow, given his recent encouraging form in the Chelsea first team, but it feels even more significant given the suspensions that had already stretched the London club's resources in the Champions League. John Terry is suspended from the match in Munich following his red card for kneeing Alexis Sánchez from behind during Tuesday's 2-2 draw in Spain and Branislav Ivanovic picked up his third yellow card of the competition for scuffing up the penalty spot in that game meaning he, too, will watch the final from the stands.

The situation is further complicated by David Luiz's absence at present, also with a hamstring injury sustained in the FA Cup semi-final victory over Tottenham Hotspur. The Brazilian has returned to light jogging but will not feature against Queens Park Rangers on Sunday, when Ivanovic will serve the last game of a three-match suspension on the home front for a violent conduct charge.

"Neither Gary nor David Luiz will be available for this weekend and then we'll assess them," Di Matteo added. "For the moment, neither is available. David is getting better but we don't know when he'll be ready for the first team. He won't make this Sunday's match, though."

There is optimism that the Brazilian will be fit to return before the match against Bayern, when he will be the only recognised centre-back available. The Portugal full-backs José Bosingwa and Paulo Ferreira have both previously filled in as emergency centre-halves – with one of the pair likely to start in the middle alongside Terry against QPR – while the midfielders Oriol Romeu, Mikel John Obi and Michael Essien all have limited first-team experience at playing in the back-line.