Chile head coach Jorge Sampaoli has admitted that he played Alexis Sánchez despite fears his injury could have been worsened on Friday night.

The forward returned to his home country and scored the second goal in a 2-0 defeat of Brazil as Chile started their World Cup 2018 qualifying campaign with an important win.

Alexis had hobbled off with a groin issue in the 3-0 defeat of Manchester United just days earlier, and his appearance for Chile had been met with some optimism that he had recovered. Unfortunately, he only played through the pain barrier.

“Alexis arrived not at the top of his form with pain in the adductor,” Sampaoli confessed after the game. The injury restricted the Arsenal man, but he played the full 90 minutes nonetheless as he feared the threat posed by Brazil.

“He couldn’t play at 100% but we thought that him not playing would give too much advantage to our rivals, because his presence in our team makes things difficult for our opponents.”

Chile still have to play Peru on Wednesday before Alexis travels back to England. Maybe Sampaoli won’t be so desperate to play him against a weaker opponent, but I wouldn’t bet on it.

We will just to have cross our fingers and hope Alexis returns to London unscathed ahead of a big month in which we face Bayern Munich twice.