Alvaro Morata has opened up about a "very difficult year" in which he found himself regularly making use of painkilling injections in order to play for Chelsea.
The Spain international joined from Real Madrid last July and enjoyed a bright start to life in England, scoring six goals in his first six Premier League matches.
However, Morata was diagnosed with a back problem in January that saw him miss four matches, including the EFL Cup semi-final second-leg loss to Arsenal.
The 25-year-old has described the extent to which trying to diagnose and treat the pain compounded a troubled time for him at Stamford Bridge which included being approached in the street by bemused fans.
"This has been a very difficult year for me and it has been the same for Chelsea," Morata explained to Marca. "I have had an extremely difficult year, torturous. But it started beautifully, I was scoring goals and everyone loved me, but now everything has changed.
"People talk to me on the street but they do not know what I have gone through, the only people who know are my wife and my family. I have wanted to keep playing, to keep scoring goals but I have not been able to and what I have experienced medically is very difficult.
"I had to go to Germany several times to receive a treatment in which they punctured me in the back and it hurt me a lot, but I had to return to training in London the next day. I could not perform and before playing against West Ham I was told I would be a father – but I could not move. I told the doctor to inject me, and since then everything has gone wrong.
"When you are injured, you are injured. Period. I have tried to keep playing, to keep going, but I cannot. I have learned so much from this year, from all the suffering. I have come home from matches and from training, and could not stand the pain.
"I could be eating or driving and all of a sudden I had searing pains in my back, in my buttocks. I would have to stop because of the sciatic nerve. It kept coming back, the pain would not go away and I had to inject myself two or three times a day."
Morata has made 45 appearances for Chelsea, scoring 15 goals and registering six assists.
