Michael Sheen has revealed the brilliant story behind Jose Mourinho ruthlessly taking out Olly Murs at Soccer Aid in 2014.
Mourinho, who was managing the Rest of the World XI, sprinted out of his technical box to take out Murs.
Advert
The reasoning behind the then-Chelsea manager swiping out the celebrity singer has been a mystery until now.
Sheen has explained that Mourinho took out Murs to prevent him from smashing into the actor who was carrying a serious elbow injury.
"The last time I played at Soccer Aid, I'd fractured my elbow in training and so I shouldn't have played at all but there's no way I wasn't going to," he said.
Advert
"They essentially said they couldn't insure me because of it, and I had to leave the day after the match to go back to America to carry on filming on the series I was doing. I had a week off from filming to go and do this."
When asked if the directors knew about his injury, he answered: "Well, they didn't know.
"So, I had to decide, do I take the risk and play in this match with a fractured elbow. If it gets any worse, I'll have to have pins in it and a surgery. I didn't tell anyone, cause I knew if did that would be it," he added.
Advert
Sheen had told the England team about his elbow injury and asked them to take it easy.
"Yeah, yeah of course," they replied, per Sheen.
He remained on the field until the 20th minute despite only setting out to play for five or 10 minutes.
Advert
Murs then approached Sheen with intent to go in hard. But before he got to the Welshman, Mourinho raced on to the field and stopped the former X-Factor star in his tracks.
Mourinho really is a genius strategist.
Featured Image Credit:Topics: Football News, Jose Mourinho, Football, Soccer Aid, Old Trafford