Cesar Azpilicueta injury thought to be 'not too serious'

Before Oscar's goal calmed some nerves and well before Diego Costa's goal settled the tie, things were looking not quite so great for Chelsea.  Misplaced passes, poor decisions, worse positioning -- nobody was playing particularly well, and the match was quickly turning into a fiasco.

Adding the literal injury to the insult of our miserly football was Cesar Azpilicueta's groin.  The full back had been getting the run-around from Remy Cabella, and was resorting to desperate lunges to try to stop the Frenchman.  It was with one of those -- an unsuccesful one at that right on the touchline, just past the half hour mark -- that he tweaked his groin.  Azpilicueta tried to carry on, rather foolishly, not only risking further injury but also creating a great chance for the visitors when he went down in a heap during the run of play and vacated our entire left defensive flank.

Fortunately, things worked out well enough for Chelsea.  As for Azpilicueta, the news isn't as great.  Though it could be worse.

Holland says Cesar Azpilicueta came off with a slight groin injury which will be scanned but they think it is not too serious. #CFC

— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) January 10, 2015

With a scan to come, we won't know the exact severity for a couple more days then, but groin injuries can be tricky and can have deceptively long recovery times.  Fortunately, we've got Filipe Luís who can step in and do the job almost as well.