Good news on Thibaut Courtois’s most silly ankle injury ahead of FA Cup semifinal against Tottenham Hotspur

The story from multiple sources regarding Thibaut Courtois’s injured ankle is that the Cheslea goalkeeper, alongside teammates Nemanja Matic, Marcos Alonso, Nathan Ake, and Asmir Begovic, was participating in a promotional shoot organized by the club and the NBA when he landed awkwardly and rolled his ankle.

As anyone who’s ever played basketball can attest to, ankle injuries are very common in the game, so that part is unfortunate but unsurprising. What is perhaps a bit surprising is that the players were allowed to participate in an activity that carries with it such obvious risk, though as the Guardian points out, the event was organized as part of the club’s “commercial duties”. Blame modern football I suppose.

Regardless, Conte is “believed to have been deeply unimpressed” by the whole sequence of events, but refused to use that as an excuse for Sunday’s poor performance.

Fortunately, the latest reports claim that Courtois is confident he will be back for Saturday’s FA Cup semifinal against Spurs. Good.