Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel praised Kai Havertz for playing with through the pain barrier for their Carabao Cup win against Tottenham.
Chelsea took charge of the semifinal with a 2-0 first-leg win at Stamford Bridge.
Havertz's fifth goal of the season put Chelsea in charge against Spurs, but the Germany forward suffered a nasty broken finger in the tumble that followed his early finish.
The 22-year-old battled on until half-time when he was forced to give up the ghost amid mounting pain, but Chelsea still produced a fine result amid a makeshift set-up and against a strong Spurs XI.
"Kai has the issue with his finger, he broke his finger and it looked horrible," said Tuchel.
"And he played through the pain that was getting bigger and bigger. He survived until half-time and then we had to make the change.
"I liked our performance a lot. We looked full of confidence and had two late last-minute pieces of bad news with Thiago Silva and N'Golo Kante, who were both supposed to start.
"So we decided at the last minute to maybe switch to a back four. The guys were very committed and very open to that, to making such a late change.
"And it was a very strong performance, so it was a well-deserved win in a big match against a very strong opponent."
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