Tottenham may need all the luck they can get in the Sunday's Carabao Cup final with Manchester City , the same type of fortune that greeted Pascal Chimbonda when Spurs last won a trophy 13 years ago.
Ahead of the Carling Cup final with Premier League title hopefuls Chelsea , the French full-back suffered a knee injury in training just two days before the Wembley clash. Chimbonda could barely walk just 24 hours before the match with Spurs already plunged in a left-back crisis. Gareth Bale and Lee Young-Pyo had long-term injuries, while midfielder Teemu Tainio was being shoehorned into a full-back role. Chimbonda was part of the last Spurs squad to win a trophy - the Carling Cup final.
But the Frenchman, who was left out of the matchday squad by Juande Ramos but still travelled to the hotel with the team, endured an incredible stroke of luck. Recalling his miracle, Chimbonda told Sportsmail : 'I was injured for the final the day before.
I got a kick on my knee and I couldn't even walk the next day in training - the day before the game. And I went to the manager and I said, "I don't have any pain in my knee.
I think I can play the game. Chimbonda was injured before the final but miraculously came through to play over an hour. He asked me to see if I had any pain anymore so I ran up and down the hotel corridors. Those sprints down the hotel were enough to convince Ramos to start Chimbonda just hours after leaving him out of the side.
