An urgent trip to the bathroom for Tottenham Hotspur's Eric Dier led to the surreal sight of the defender running off the pitch during Tuesday's Carabao Cup match against Chelsea -- with coach Jose Mourinho chasing down the tunnel after him.
Spurs were trailing 1-0 with 15 minutes to go when Dier raced off the pitch and darted towards the dressing room, quickly followed by a furious Mourinho whose side were briefly down to 10 men in their fourth-round home clash.
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Mourinho soon returned to his dugout and Dier swiftly made it back onto the pitch, helping Tottenham find an equaliser from Erik Lamela which made it 1-1 to force a penalty shootout.
Spurs went on to win 5-4 on penalties, with Dier scoring their first spot kick (stream the replay on ESPN+ in the U.S.).
"Jose wasn't happy but there was nothing I could do about it, nature was calling," explained Dier. "I heard there was a chance [for Chelsea] while I was off the pitch but thankfully they didn't score."
Former Chelsea boss Mourinho defended his decision to race after Dier down the tunnel, but praised the England international for his performance, which came two days after he played 90 minutes in the 1-1 Premier League draw with Newcastle United.
"With Eric you can imagine what happened, for him to leave the pitch," Mourinho said. "I knew it, I was just pushing him to come back as soon as possible because [we had] no more changes and one player less.
"It was the consequence of something not human that he did, which was to play two matches completely dehydrated, tired, no energy in the muscles, completely dead. Of course, he is not playing Thursday because I would definitely kill him."
The win gave Dier something to celebrate after a hectic few days in which he made headlines after the ball hit his arm against Newcastle leading to the controversial penalty equaliser that denied Spurs all three points on Sunday.