Chelsea's
Mason Mount says he feared the worst when he injured his ankle in the
Champions League and has revealed he played against Liverpool with the joint
still swollen.
The 20-year-old midfielder lasted just 15 minutes of his European debut
against Valencia last week before limping off at Stamford Bridge, and Mount
admitted: "As soon as I did it, I thought it was going to be a long-term
injury."
But he started in Sunday's 2-1 defeat at home to the Premier League leaders
and came through 90 minutes unscathed.
"Your Champions League debut, you don't want it to end so soon, but that is
football. It happened and I try to stay positive," he said.
"I looked forward to the Liverpool game and set a goal that hopefully I
could get ready for that. I feel like I am quick at recovering and we worked
on it hard, and I was able to get back.
"I iced it and it calmed down, and I realised it was not as bad as I first
thought. The next day I was jogging on it a little and from then, I knew
there was a chance of me being involved (against Liverpool).
"There is still swelling there now but it is solid and I felt good and
trained the day before. I was pretty positive the day before the game that I
would be involved.
"You have to block the injury out of your mind and focus on the game. When I
had that chance, which I felt I should have scored, I rolled my ankle a
little bit and it felt fine. It was fine throughout the whole game. It was
solid."
Chelsea currently sit 11th in the Premier League table after two wins, two
draws and two defeats in Frank Lampard's opening six games as manager, but
Mount believes their new group of players have made a positive start.
"If you look at the games we have had, you can take positives from every
game, but we need to win at home - that is a big focus," he said.
"We are doing well away but now the focus is on building a fortress at home
so when teams come here, they know it is going to be a tough game, and we
showed that in the second half (against Liverpool).
"The set-pieces are causing trouble. When you switch off at set-pieces at
this level, you get punished. That is something we have been looking at, and
that we need to keep working on."
top