Ben Chilwell has revealed his relief at avoiding another serious injury in Chelsea’s goalless draw with Tottenham.
The England left-back received lengthy treatment on the field after turning his ankle, but was able to shake off the issue and see out Sunday’s Premier League stalemate.
Chilwell battled a niggling heel problem on arriving at Chelsea from Leicester in the summer, and is determined not to suffer any further fitness setbacks now he is up to speed in west London.
And the 23-year-old conceded he endured a nervy few minutes after receiving his ankle blow on Sunday.
“I was desperate to carry on and thankfully I ran it off,” said Chilwell.
“It’s fine now so I’m just looking forward to recovering and hopefully playing again in midweek.”
Jose Mourinho’s Spurs returned to the top of the table courtesy of Sunday’s stodgy draw, while Chelsea sat third at the start of the new week.
Chelsea extended their unbeaten run to 14 matches in all competitions, with nine clean sheets across that stint.
Chilwell hailed the Blues’ latest strong defensive showing, highlighting the growing stability in Frank Lampard’s ranks.
“I don’t know if it was entertaining to watch but I found it pretty entertaining on the pitch because it was two good teams who were tactically very good on the day,” Chilwell told Chelsea’s official club website.
“I’d have loved for us to win the game at Stamford Bridge against our rivals but for myself and the rest of the defence, the clean sheet is really important for us moving forward.
“We’re happy with a clean sheet against a great strike force like theirs, because we know how good they are.
“Kane and Son are very clinical going forward and the link-up play between them is very good so we’re happy with nullifying them both.
“When you’re battling up the top you don’t want to give them points and they don’t want to give you points.
“We wanted to win but we’ll take the draw; we’ve got to be happy with that.”
While Tottenham boss Mourinho insisted Spurs were not satisfied with their draw, full debutant Joe Rodon revealed his delight at the clean sheet.
“It was a very difficult game and to make my starting debut and come away with a clean sheet was a great confidence-booster for me,” Rodon told Spurs’ official club website.
“There’s stuff to look back on that thinking about it we got away with, so I’ll take it with me, learn from it and I’ll hopefully come back stronger.
“I think the minimum is what everyone expects of us is to work our socks off.
“All of the boys dug in and if things don’t quite go our way then it’s important to keep that clean sheet and I think the boys worked really hard.
“If we can continue and work hard to keep clean sheets, the talent we’ve got up front, they are always going to score a lot of goals.”
