BAD CHICKEN TO BLAME FOR SCHURRLE’S CHELSEA EXIT

FULHAM forward Andre Schurrle has blamed a piece of dodgy chicken for the premature end to his Chelsea career under Jose Mourinho.

The former Germany international has revealed he contracted salmonella while in Poland for a European Championship qualifier in October 2014 — just three months before he was sold by Chelsea.

Schurrle, who returns to Stamford Bridge with Fulham today for the first time since his departure, began the 2014-15 season strongly after a triumphant World Cup. He started four of Chelsea’s first seven league games before going on international duty.

‘In my first year, I was really happy,’ said Schurrle. ‘I started half the games or a little bit more. I had quite good stats, I scored important goals. Confidence from the manager, too.

‘Then, in the first half of the second year, it was difficult. I had bad salmonella. It was with the national team, in Poland.’

Schurrle missed Chelsea’s next League game, against Crystal Palace. Reports at the time said he was suffering from flu. He was not. ‘We didn’t find out for a week, so I was just at home being sick and really feeling like I couldn’t get out of bed,’ he added. ‘Then we found out it was salmonella.

‘It took a long time to get the strength back. I never got the chance to prove myself being back 100 per cent. That was when I got the opportunity to go back to Germany and he (Mourinho) let me go. I’ve never eaten chicken since.’

Schurrle would start only one of the next 15 league games, and he was dragged off at half-time in that. In January he was gone, sold to Wolfsburg for £22million.

Now, Schurrle returns with Fulham — on a two-year loan from Borussia Dortmund even though he is still their £23m record signing. Despite the intensity of a relegation battle, Schurrle feels more at ease here than he did at Dortmund.

‘Everybody looked at me, the media and the fans as well: “They paid 30m euros for this guy, let’s see what he can do”,’ he explained. ‘Then you have a couple of bad games or you have injuries like I had in Dortmund.

‘The media was not really on my side, the fans as well because they wanted to get more out of me because I cost that much.

‘Now it’s completely different. I come to Fulham on loan. I’m just here to play football and they see that I want to give everything.’