FOWL LUCK Bug clipped Schurrle wings
BREAKING THROUGH: Schurrle in his days at Chelsea ANDRE SCHURRLE revealed a piece of dodgy chicken ended his Chelsea career – and turned him against meat.
Fulham’s Germany World Cup winner returns to the ground today where his star shone brightly with a Premier League winners’ medal but faded just as quickly after he caught salmonella.
WingerSchurrlewasoneof Fulham’s goalscoring heroes as new manager Claudio Ranieri’s took the hotseat for the first time last Saturday.
A 3-2 win over Southampton ended a run of seven straight defeats that cost Slavisa Jokanovic his job.
Now Schurrle, on a season’s loan from Borussia Dortmund, hopes to continue his new-found form at a ground where he started out by replacing Kevin De Bruyne against Hull in August 2013.
Schurrle, 28, said: “I’ve never been back although I’ve walked past it a few times.”
The strolls brought back memories – both good and bad – because of how it ended all so suddenly soon after he won a World Cup medal.
Germany were on a short trip to Poland and he went down with salmonella after eating chicken.
He recovered but in a Chelsea squad full of stars he struggled and was sold to Wolfsburg after just 44 league games, where he scored 11 goals.
Schurrle added: “It wasn’t as if I didn’t get a fair crack under Jose Mourinho. I got on well with him and I hope he does well at Manchester United. But in a club like Chelsea they had so many big players.
“When I think of the squad we had it was unbelievable. When I went there it was not easy to be a regular starter. To be fair in my first year I was really happy with the role I had, I started half the games or a little bit more.
“It was amazing being there. Then the first half of the second year it was just very difficult. I had really bad salmonella.
“I was out for maybe three weeks and coming back I never really got the chance to prove myself being back 100 per cent. That was when I got the opportunity to go back to Germany and Jose let me go.
“I got salmonella with the national team, the only one who caught it. You see how skinny I am so to lose three, four, five kilos it took me a really long time to get the strength back.
“There were days when I couldn’t get out of bed. I’ve never eaten chicken – or much of any meat – since. I am almost a vegan.”
Schurrle feels sorry for Jokanovic but loves life under new Cottagers boss Ranieri.
The winger said: “His main focus is being tactically and defensively more stable, being in a block, being compact and basically harder to beat.
“He always has a smile on his face and wants to work and speak to the players and get close to the players. He likes to have fun on the pitch.”
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