Emi Martinez has been playing through pain since before the World Cup after deciding against undergoing surgery on a broken finger.
But he has now revealed that he has been playing through excruciating pain which left him ‘seeing stars’ for some time, having broken a finger before the tournament, where he played every minute as Argentina were beaten in the final.
He said the injury left his finger looking “like a blood sausage” and that “it won’t ever return” to normality as the bone has been left out of place.
“Those are the risks you take for the national team,” Martinez said, speaking to journalist Gaston Edul in a YouTube interview. “I’d do it again.”
He continued: “I was diving like a zombie. I dived like that, I got up and I put my hand down and I’d see stars … every night, until 12am, I’d be crying because my finger was like a blood sausage.”
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Martinez added that Chelsea took no issue with the injury when he underwent a medical before his transfer: “They said it was impossible for me to play like that, that I needed surgery. Chelsea didn’t mind… (but) someday you will need an operation.”
He also said the pain from his broken jaw was nowhere near as bad as that from his finger.
Xabi Alonso said on Friday that Martinez is in the process of having a mask fitted so as to help accelerate his return to the pitch.
Before suffering his injury at Everton, Martinez had played every minute of Chelsea’s Premier League campaign. He has since been deputised by Belgium’s Mike Penders.