Chelsea fans, and indeed football fans everywhere, would have been confused to see Belgian shot-stopper Thibaut Courtois omitted from Antonio Conte's side to face Manchester United.
While Jose Mourinho is resting players such as Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Henrikh Mkhitaryan with the Europa League in mind, Chelsea are certainly not in a position to rotate the team with Spurs breathing down their neck, and this is not the reason for Courtois' absence.
It has emerged that Thibaut Coirtois injured himself while on a promotional shoot for the NBA. As bizarre as that sounds, the it is seemingly the truth. News broke in the hour before kick-off:
Sky Sports are saying that according to #Chelsea, Courtois got injured during a promotional shoot for the NBA. That is very annoying indeed.
— Chelsea HQ (@Chelsea_HQ) April 16, 2017
According to @SkySports Courtois was injured at an NBA promotional event, now Marcos Alonso has been injured in the warm-up and is also out. pic.twitter.com/97kU6FtayZ
— Bleacher Report UK (@br_uk) April 16, 2017
And it was confirmed by Martin Tyler in the commentary booth just as the game was about to get underway.
Asmir Begovic in for his first Premier League action of the season.
For Thibaut Courtois, his love of basketball leading to an untimely injury.
The exact details of how the goalkeeper got injured are unclear, but as a rolled ankle is one of the most common injuries in basketball we can safely assume he sustained the injury while playing.
The severity of his injury should become clear in the coming days.
For those wondering what the hell he was doing working with the NBA and playing basketball, Courtois is a big fan of American sports and his work with the NFL in recent times gives us an idea as to what he was getting up to.
