John Terry makes wild injury claim about his entire Chelsea career

Chelsea legend John Terry played hundreds of games unfit, he claims (Picture: Getty Images)

John Terry was undoubtedly a tough player, but maybe we didn’t realise how tough until he revealed how often he was injured during his Chelsea career and played anyway.

The 45-year-old had an epic career with the Blues, joining as a 14-year-old in 1995 and leaving for Aston Villa in 2017.

During that spell he made 717 appearances for the west London club and won a mammoth amount of silverware.

The former Chelsea captain won five Premier League titles, the Champions League , Europa League , five FA Cups and three League Cups with the Blues.

Terry was rarely out of the Chelsea side for around 15 years, with injury keeping him out of the team occasionally, but more often than not he says he played through fitness issues.

A lot more often than not.

Terry has made the extraordinary claim that he only felt fully fit for five of the games he played in his Chelsea career, meaning he played with some form of illness or injury in 712 matches.

Terry is Chelsea’s most successful captain (Picture: Getty Images)

‘I was very old school. If I was feeling ill or sick I would just go out and get on with it, I don’t think people should miss matches due to illness – it doesn’t sit right with me,’ Terry said on the Double Tops podcast , sponsored by BetMGM ,

‘Everyone says “oh you won’t be at your peak if you’re ill”, but you don’t know that until you get out there and give it a crack.

‘I can’t tell you the amount of injections that I had to get through the next game, but that’s because I wanted to play in every single one.

Terry in 1998, the year he made his Chelsea debut (Picture: Getty Images)

‘I played 717 games for Chelsea and I could say, genuinely, I was 100 per cent fit for five of them.

‘When I went into a game, I rarely didn’t have a rib, arm, leg, ankle or some sort of injury – something always hurt. That was just part of being a professional footballer and you can’t sit it out because you’re ill.

‘The games come so thick and fast and you can’t afford to miss one. The player who might come in to replace you might not be at your level and in order to win titles and constantly compete, you need to be there, no matter what.’

There was certainly evidence of Terry playing through immense pain and discomfort during his career, memorably declaring himself fit to play despite having two broken ribs in 2012.

Terry was subbed off with fractured ribs, but did not remain sidelined (Picture: Getty Images)

‘I’m struggling a bit, to be honest,’ he said after fracturing ribs in a Champions League clash with Benfica. ‘I got an elbow in the ribs about 20 minutes into the away leg and the doctors feared I’d fractured two of them.

‘I thought it was OK but, later in the second half [in the second leg], it just seemed to be getting worse and I was struggling to breathe. It was difficult. I have never felt anything like that before.

‘I don’t think it will mean I’m out at all. It’s just a case of managing it, and things like that. I know there are ways around it. With the ribs you can’t really do anything: you can’t treat the injury or massage it to make it better. You just have to let it heal, but I can get through games, definitely. The guys have got a few ideas to get me through them.’