Czech Republic captain Tomas Rosicky has admitted that he wanted to continue playing in his team’s 2-1 win over Greece on Tuesday evening despite picking up an injury that left him "playing on one foot".
The Arsenal man was replaced at half-time after he injured his Achilles' tendon in the first-half, but his team-mates managed to win without him with a goal each from Petr Jiracek and Vaclav Pilar enough to secure the three points despite Theofanis Gekas' consolation strike.
Rosicky claimed that he noticed the injury after 20 minutes but that he hoped to continue playing in the second half. The final word of the Czech medical staff, however, put an end to those wishes and the knock will be looked at more extensively immediately.
"Despite the fact that since 20th minute I was playing only on one foot, I wanted to carry on," Rosicky told reporters.
"But our doctors said it's better to stop and the fact we were leading 2-0 helped to support this decision. This is an Achilles' [tendon] injury, I'm not sure how serious, the doctors said it will be assessed as quick as possible.
"This was purely accidental; I just made a move and felt the pain."
After impressing in the first-half against Greece the Czechs were put under more pressure after the break, but Rosicky was not able to witness the second period.
"It's good that we were passing around well, but I don't know what happened in the second half - I wasn't there to watch it," he explained.
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Rank | Team | W/D/L | Pts |
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Cities & Stadiums
The Top 3 Teams of Previous Tournaments
Year | Winners | Runner-up | Third place |
---|---|---|---|
2008 | Spain | Germany | Russia / Turkey |
2004 | Greece | Portugal | Netherlands / Czech Republic |
2000 | France | Italy | Netherlands / Portugal |
1996 | Germany | Czech Republic | France / England |
1992 | Denmark | Germany | Netherlands / Sweden |
1988 | Netherlands | Soviet Union | Italy / West Germany |
1984 | France | Spain | Denmark / Portugal |
1980 | West Germany | Belgium | Czechoslovakia |
1976 | Czechoslovakia | West Germany | Netherlands |
1972 | West Germany | Soviet Union | Belgium |
1968 | Italy | Yugoslavia | England |
1964 | Spain | Soviet Union | Hungary |
1960 | Soviet Union | Yugoslavia | Czechoslovakia |