Emiliano Martinez: The Broken Finger That Changed His Career
Emiliano “Dibu” Martinez has had his jaw broken and his lights switched out on a Premier League pitch. He can barely remember the latest collision that left him strapped to a stretcher, neck and head immobilised, diet reduced to blended meals.
Yet the injury that truly changed his life is a crooked finger.
Not a concussion. Not a shattered jaw. A ring finger on his right hand that still looks, in his words, “like a blood sausage.”
The finger that cost him surgery – and gave him a World Cup
The story starts on a night that was supposed to be perfect. May 20. Aston Villa’s Europa League final win over Freiburg. Martinez, already a national hero in Argentina, walked off the pitch with another European trophy and a dull ache in his hand.
The pain didn’t go away in the celebrations. Scans told him why: he had broken the ring finger on his right hand.
His first thought wasn’t about Villa. It wasn’t about rehab. It was panic.
“I said, ‘No! I’m not making to the World Cup!’ and started to cry. I was out,” Martinez told Argentine reporter Gaston Edul on his podcast.
The diagnosis was clear. Surgery was the recommendation. Miss the World Cup, fix the finger, come back whole.
Then his phone lit up.
Argentina manager Lionel Scaloni sent him a message: “Whether or not you make it I’m going to back you.”
That was all Martinez needed. Alongside Argentina goalkeeping coach Martín Tocalli and trainer Dani Martinez, he chose the hard road: no surgery, no time off, just pain and improvisation.
He would go to the World Cup with a broken finger, or not at all.
Stars in training, pain until midnight
The decision carried a cost. Training became an ordeal.
Martinez described seeing stars during sessions as he tried to protect the damaged hand. After diving, he refused to push himself up with his right hand, forcing his body to move in awkward, unnatural ways just to avoid a surge of pain.
Most nights, he said, the pain lasted until midnight. The finger swelled and darkened, grotesque and angry, “like a blood sausage.”
Argentina’s medical and technical staff searched for solutions. Eventually they found a compromise: a finger cast fitted over the damaged digit and a custom glove from Adidas to house it.
It helped. It didn’t fix him.
Martinez admitted the protection affected him significantly during the tournament. Handling, punching, even basic movements carried risk. Every cross, every shot, every scramble in the box came with the knowledge that one wrong impact could end his World Cup on the spot.
He played anyway.
Across eight matches, he didn’t miss a minute. He made 20 saves, conceded eight goals and dragged a damaged hand through a campaign that ended in heartbreak: a 1-0 defeat to Spain in extra time in the final.
He left the tournament with no trophy, a mangled finger and a decision that would echo into his club career.
How a broken finger changed his club future
Martinez’s refusal to go under the knife didn’t just shape Argentina’s World Cup. It helped reroute his club career.
He revealed that an Italian side – reportedly Juventus – had been ready to sign him from Aston Villa. The finger changed their minds. The injury, and the choice to delay surgery, made the deal too complicated. The move collapsed.
That sliding door swung him towards Stamford Bridge instead. Chelsea stepped in. The broken finger, the missed surgery, the gamble on the World Cup – all of it fed into the chain of events that led him to west London.
A damaged hand, but a bigger stage.
Knocked out cold at Chelsea
His latest setback came in blue.
Against Everton, Martinez collided with centre-back Jarrad Branthwaite and was knocked out cold. He remembers the foul. Not much after that.
Medical staff stabilised his head and neck and carried him off on a stretcher. The images were stark: Argentina’s No. 1, Chelsea’s new signing, utterly still.
The aftermath has been grim in its own way. Speaking in the same interview, Martinez explained that he has been unable to eat solid food, relying on his usual diet blended down to the consistency of baby food while his broken jaw heals.
He expects the jaw to clear up soon. The finger is a different story.
The fourth finger still needs an operation. Doctors have warned that even if he finally agrees to it, it will never be the same as it would have been had he listened at the start, skipped the World Cup and undergone the recommended surgery.
The damage is permanent now. The price is locked in.
No regrets
Ask him if he’d change it, though, and there is no hesitation.
Despite the pain, despite the long nights and the lingering deformity, he insists he would make the same decision again.
“We represented the country as well as possible. At the end, what stays is what you represent to the country,” he said.
The final in which Argentina fell to Spain still stings. The return home cut even deeper.
“I went back to Argentina, which I didn’t want to. I was really bad. My kid asked me to go back, and I went and felt a lot more love than when we won in Qatar.”
That is the part that stays with him. Not the missed surgery. Not the what-ifs of a finger that will never fully bend the right way again.
For Martinez, the scars – on his jaw, on his hand, on his record – are part of the bargain. He chose the World Cup, chose his country, chose the risk.
The finger will never be right. In his mind, that only proves the choice was real.
