Marc Cucurella has admitted time on the sidelines with an ankle injury helped him turn his Chelsea career around.

Chelsea beat Manchester City to the £62m signing of Cucurella in the summer of 2022, but the left-back failed to justify that price tag in a turbulent first 18 months at Stamford Bridge which saw him become a target for social media critics.

Meanwhile, he was one of Spain’s top performers during his nation’s Euro 2024 triumph this summer, and Cucurella has maintained that form this season under new Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca.

Asked to identify the turning point in his career, Cucurella confessed three months on the sidelines with an ankle injury last season gave him the chance to really get his head around what was going on.

“If I had to name a moment that changed my career – and it’s weird because it’s an injury and no one wants to be injured – it’s the ankle injury last season,” Cucurella told The Guardian. “You’re on your own, there’s a lot of time to think, to work. And those two months helped me mentally. There’s a before and after. I saw a mental coach and that helped.

“The criticism is hard, you take it personally. Once the game is over, it’s over. You can be annoyed one day or two or three, but it makes no difference. That used to happen to me. It gets in your head more and you lose confidence. And once you lose that confidence, you’re not the same. It’s like you’re scared, things don’t come off, there’s a darkness, a confusion.

“But I’ve reached a point where it doesn’t matter. It’s not easy to get there; I’ve worked at it. That period injured helped me to know myself better. One day you’re up here, the next you’re injured and no one knows you. That helped me to see. It all depends on you.”

While form was an obvious concern during the early months of Cucurella’s Chelsea career, he confessed a series of off-field incidents left him struggling to show his best on the pitch.

“When I went to Chelsea it all happened to me,” the left-back continued. “We were in a hotel a long time, things weren’t going so well at the kids’ school, we got burgled… It was Brazil-Serbia, during the World Cup. My wife went into the bedroom and found them. It wasn’t nice; we went back to a hotel because we were scared.