Watford defender Francisco Sierralta was forced to play on with a suspected torn muscle by Chile, who refused to bring him off in their recent World Cup qualifier.
That’s according to Red Gol, who have a video of the defender telling the bench, “I tore myself up” before being forced to play on with the injury.
They explain that the Watford man played on from the 83rd minute with a tear in the recent clash with Ecuador.
At that point in the game, they were already a man down after Arturo Vidal had seen red, while there were also three players injured on the pitch.
Eugenio Mena, Alexis Sanchez and then Sierralta all picked up injuries during the game, but while the first two went off, the Watford man was forced to stay on and ‘ended up playing in pain’.
He was seen throwing himself to the ground in pain in the 83rd minute, a ‘clear sign’ that he could not continue as he was ‘putting his health at risk’.
However, despite telling the bench, “I’ve torn myself” they insisted he stay on the play on as best he could, which resulted in him moving to play centre forward.
At that point, La Roja were 1-0 down and desperately looking for an equaliser, and Martín Lasarte’s staff believed that would be ‘impossible’ if Sierralta had gone off.
At first, the Watford man ‘seemed to refuse’ but ‘gave in to pressure’ from the fans and the bench, instead playing a role upfront to do his bit.
Whether that was a poor choice remains to be seen, but it’s stated that Watford ‘will not be at all happy’ with what happened, with the player now set to return to England for the necessary tests.
The hope is that it is nothing major, but the early signs are not good, and if he’s out for a while, all fingers will be pointed at his national team.
