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Chelsea fan André Schürrle’s Chelsea career was unfortunately rather short, lasting barely 18 months on either side of setting up the winning goal in the 2014 World Cup final.
Schürrle left in January of 2015, and while in subsequent years he had spoken of his regret in making a hasty decision, at the time, his reasoning and need for consistent playing time were clear. The previous six months did not go to plan at all, and he seemed to be suffering on and off the pitch.
As it turns out, a bit of food-borne misfortune played a key role.
“In my first year I was really happy. I started half the games or a little bit more. I had quite good stats, I scored important goals. Confidence from the manager too. Then the second year in the first half it was very difficult. I had bad salmonella. It was with the national team, in Poland. The next day we flew back and I was gone.
“We didn’t find out for a week so I was just at home being sick and really feeling like I couldn’t get out of bed. Then we found out it was salmonella.
“I was getting really weak. You see how skinny I am, so to lose three, four, five kilos … I did not have any strength and it took a long time to get the strength back. I never got the chance to prove myself being back 100 per cent. That was when I got the opportunity to go back to Germany and he let me go. I’ve never eaten chicken since.”
-Andre Schurrle, Source: Daily Mail
At the time, Schürrle’s weak physical condition was a great big mystery that no one seemed willing to talk about with any clarity for whatever reason. Since then, Schürrle had talked about a debilitating muscle condition that he’s had to deal with and manage with injections, but as if that weren’t enough, he apparently also had to deal with a bad case of food poisoning as well.
Unfortunately, Schürrle missed out on his homecoming last night as he was not involved in the first West London Derby since 2014 — a match in which Schürrle scored a hat-trick for Chelsea — due to a minor hamstring injury. We wish him all the best this season on loan from Borussia Dortmund as the Cottagers try to stave off relegation straight back down to the Championship.