Champions League final: Chelsea defender Thiago Silva leaves pitch in tears with groin injury

Thiago Silva’s Champions League final ended in tears as a groin injury forced the Chelsea defender off before half-time.

The Brazilian, who lost last season’s final when a Paris Saint-Germain player, hobbled off after 40 minutes against Manchester City at the Estadio Drago in Porto.

Silva had tried to continue but crumbled to the ground a couple of minutes later and had to be consoled by team-mates as he trudged from the field to be replaced by Andreas Christensen.

Television footage then showed the visibly upset Silva cover his head in a blue shirt as he took his place in the stands. He laid on the steps in the stands and has to be comforted by Chelsea’s substitutes.

The 36-year-old was part of the PSG side beaten 1-0 by Bayern Munich in last August’s Champions League final.

Silva had enjoyed a positive first-half until that point, winning all of his duels and aerial battles as Chelsea kept City at bay.

His withdrawal didn’t immediately affect Chelsea, however, as they opened the scoring through Kai Havertz three minutes afterwards.

Silva has defied his advancing years to feature in 33 matches for Chelsea this season having joined on a free after leaving PSG last summer.

The defender did have a thigh injury that ruled him out of seven matches in February and March before he returned to Thomas Tuchel's side to play both legs of the Champions League semi-final with Real Madrid and the FA Cup final with Leicester.