Chelsea goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois insists his “scary” bloodshot eye is by no means hampering his performances.
The Belgium number one sat on the bench for his country’s 1-1 friendly draw with the Netherlands on Wednesday after recovering from an illness that made him burst a blood vessel in his left eye.
Courtois is expected to feature in their World Cup Qualifier against Estonia on Sunday and has described all the gory details of his Halloween ordeal exclusively to Sky Sports
“After the Manchester United game I came home and got sick,” he said.
“I had to vomit a few times and you force yourself, and it was just a vein that popped in my eye.
“It looks scary. It was the Halloween period so then it was okay but now it’s not going away. They said 10 days and it’s already been two and a half weeks but it doesn’t affect me in the game.
“Some pictures look worse than it is. There’s nothing to do about it.”
Courtois has kept seven successive clean sheets for Chelsea and Belgium, failing to concede since the defeat to Liverpool in September, which has helped propel the Blues into the Premier League top four.
His manager at Stamford Bridge, Antonio Conte, has recently played down talk of his side being in title contention but Courtois hopes they can be there or thereabouts come May.
“We could be title contenders but after last season we have to be careful about everything,” he said.
“We cannot relax because maybe last year we went too easy into the season because we were champions the year before. We have to keep the focus, ambition and hunger to win and, if we keep that, then maybe in May we can lift that trophy.
“The clean sheets are nice but, apart from against Leicester and Manchester United, I didn’t have too much work to do. That’s part of the teamwork. If you defend well you keep clean sheets and that’s what’s happening with Belgium and Chelsea.”
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Source: Sky Sports