Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel has provided eye-wincing details on the groin injury that Trevoh Chalobah sustained in Sunday's Carabao Cup final loss to Liverpool.
Chalobah was caught on the wrong end of a high-boot challenge from Naby Keita, with the Reds midfielder planting his studs straight into the defender's upper thigh and somehow escaping punishment.
The centre-back, who played the full 120 minutes and scored in the eventual penalty shootout loss, later revealed on Twitter that the injury required stitches, and Tuchel was quizzed on Chalobah's condition ahead of Chelsea's FA Cup tie at Luton Town.
"I could not believe what I saw after the match. There was surgery literally in our dressing room and I am not joking," Tuchel said.
"They were stitching him up. I could not believe it. After the match, after the press conference when I left they were doing the stitches, I just heard him scream. It looked horrible.
"I went in and saw it, it looked horrible and I could not believe he played one more minute with this kind of injury but he played the rest of the match and scored a penalty.
"This is really big. I would say he has shown some balls but that would be the wrong line but he was really brave to do this. Full credit to him."
Tuchel continued his assessment of the injury in slightly more gruesome detail, so this is a trigger warning for those who are squeamish about such matters.
"Very close to his [penis]. You could not look away. They had surgery, there were stitches. It was there. He was the only one with the doctors and I heard the noise.
"Seriously it was a proper cut, very close to the area of the groin. It was open and it needed to be closed.
"I decided not to tell today because we have so many of the players overloaded and with these kind of injuries I do not want to give too much information and make preparation for Luton a bit too easy. I don't want to do it.
"We are working on it. He was very tough and he has my full respect."
Source : 90min