Having conducted his post-match media duties following Chelsea's Carabao Cup final defeat to Liverpool, Thomas Tuchel returned to the Chelsea dressing room and was shocked by what greeted him.
"I could not believe what I saw after the match," the German revealed this afternoon during his pre-match press conference. "There was surgery going on in our dressing room!
"I'm not joking, it was surgery. They were stitching him up and I just heard him scream in pain while they were doing it."
The man responsible for that scream was Chelsea defender Trevoh Chalobah, who midway through the second half of the final collided with Liverpool midfielder Naby Keita.
In real-time, it appeared a genuine coming together, and referee Stuart Attwell even played advantage for the Reds.
Yet when the incident was replayed, it showed Keita had planted his studs into Chalobah's groin having made no contact with the ball. Rather bizarrely, the VAR didn't even review the incident.
The 22-year-old academy graduate would go on to complete the game and scored in the penalty shootout that Chelsea ultimately lost. But on his return to the dressing room, he required six stitches to sew up the wound he had suffered.
"It was a proper cut very close in the area of the groin. It was open and needed to be closed. He was tough, very, very tough, so full respect because it shows what it takes," Tuchel explained.
"It looked horrible. I went in and saw it and it looked horrible. I could not believe that he played one more minute with this kind of injury – but he played the full match and scored a penalty.
"This is really big. I was going to say he showed some balls but maybe that's the wrong line! He was really, really brave to do this, and full credit."
Chalobah's efforts in Sunday's final – and those of his Chelsea teammates – ultimately proved in vain as Liverpool clinched the Carabao Cup for the ninth time.
But the Blues played well and that was something Tuchel stressed when he gathered his players together in a post-match huddle on the Wembley pitch.
"I told the players that I cannot be more proud of what we delivered, I was happy from the first to the last second on the sideline," Tuchel said.
"I could see the commitment and that I wanted them to know this. I wanted to give them this feedback straight away, that was more or less the message."
