The passion, commitment and determination that Rudiger shows on the pitch every time he pulls on the Chelsea shirt have helped to cement his status as a firm favourite among the Blues supporters. It also ensures the German is never one to shy away from confrontation on the field, seeming to thrive on his desire to win any personal duels, although he insists it is never premeditated and he is careful to make sure he never crosses the line.

As an example, he pointed to the last 16 of last season’s triumphant Champions League campaign, when he came up against Atletico Madrid striker Luis Suarez, a player infamous for stepping over that line on several occasions for club and country, not least when biting Chelsea defender Branislav Ivanovic in a Premier League match between the Blues and Liverpool in 2013.

‘I don’t go into the game saying I’m going to do this or do that,’ explained Rudiger. ‘It’s just in the moment it happens. Like in this incident with Suarez, he pinched me on my leg.

‘It’s not that I want to play or something like this, because he’s also I think a master of the dark side, so you always have to be careful when you play like that because sometimes it goes in your favour and sometimes it doesn’t go in yours.

The Blues defender also confirmed those types of incidents and confrontations only add to his motivation, not that it is something he is lacking in the first place.

‘I don’t know why I have this. I have something in me that when I see something that doesn’t matter or if I get like kicked or something like this, then I’m ready to go. Then I don’t need any extra motivation from anybody, let’s say, in a football way.

‘It’s like this in football sometimes. You can get kicked, it is what it is at the end of the day. It’s competition, it’s sport, but it’s not like you want to hurt someone and as long as you don’t go over the line, for me everything is fine.’

To underline his point that these tussles on the pitch are just part of football and nothing personal, Rudiger gave another example of a player who takes the same approach without crossing the line, Manchester United midfielder Scott McTominay, after the two were seen in a heated exchange during our 0-0 draw at Stamford Bridge last season.

‘I like this Scott McTominay because he’s someone who you can have something with, like a little bit of an issue on the pitch and everything, and after the game you shake hands, respect each other and everybody goes his own way.’

Rudiger also discussed another notable feature of his game, namely the last-ditch blocks to deny opponents what appeared to be an almost certain goal, looking specifically at his blocks on Crystal Palace striker Wilfried Zaha this season and, famously, Manchester City’s Phil Foden in the 2021 Champions League final.

‘In this type of moment you don’t have too much time to think – it’s just put one leg, put both legs, hopefully you block the shot.

‘With Foden it was a 50/50 one and thank God, because normally he would take a better touch. His touch was not bad, but if he took a better touch there’s nothing I can do, so thank God that the touch went a bit more forward and then I said to myself “it’s all or nothing”.’

You can watch Rudiger discussing those subjects in the video above, as well as explaining how he uses his knowledge of Premier League strikers to neutralise their threat and why you’re unlikely to hear his team-mates and coaches joining the crowd's cries of ‘shoot’ when he lines up one of his long-range drives.