Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel has revealed that Trevoh Chalobah required dressing room surgery after suffering a gruesome injury to his manhood during the Carabao Cup final defeat to Liverpool.
Chalobah, 22, was left in excruciating pain after being caught in the groin area by Liverpool midfielder Naby Keita during Sunday’s final at Wembley.
The defender bravely played on until the end of the match and would score a penalty in the shootout, which Liverpool eventually won 11-10 after Chelsea goalkeeper Kepa Arrizbalaga missed the decisive spot kick.
Tuchel has revealed Chalobah required stitches in the dressing room immediately after full-time.
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Tuchel said: “I would say he has shown some balls - but that would be the wrong line!
“I could not believe what I saw after the match. There was surgery literally in our dressing room and I am not joking.
“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.
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“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 in the shoot-out.
“This is really big. But he was really brave to do this. You could not look away.
“They had surgery, there were stitches 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. He was very tough and he has my full respect.”
Chalobah has now recovered from the injury but Tuchel has refused to confirm if he will feature against Luton Town in the fifth round of the FA Cup on Wednesday.
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He added: “I decided not to say 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.”
Topics: Chelsea, Trevoh Chalobah, Thomas Tuchel, Football, Premier League, Carabao Cup
Rory O'Callaghan