West Ham United's Matthew Taylor is helped off after a clash with Stoke City's Peter Crouch during the Barclays Premier League match at the Britannia Stadium, Stoke.

Hammers midfielder Matt Taylor chose to return to the fray at Stamford Bridge on Sunday, despite having a fractured jaw from his meeting with Peter Crouch’s boot at Stoke City

It was certainly a surprise to see Matt Taylor take to the field against Chelsea on Sunday, especially as he confirmed later, he is still sporting a broken jaw.

Taylor was poleaxed by a Peter Crouch boot early in the clash with Stoke City at the Britannia Stadium on March 2 and his resulting concussion was expected to rule him out of the trip to Stamford Bridge.

However, he was included on the bench on Sunday and was introduced for Mo Diame at half time.

At least the memory of that fateful boot at Stoke is not haunting him – he can’t remember it at all.

“I remember the ball going over my head and that is it,” revealed the 30-year-old winger. “I’ve seen images and watched it back and it doesn’t make very nice viewing, but it is probably a good thing that I don’t really remember it.”

Taylor was out cold for a few seconds after that clash, but he felt confident of his fitness going into the match at Chelsea.

“I ticked all the boxes I needed to in terms of the concussion, that was the big worry for me,” he said.

“It was more a case of whether I felt ready to play and I felt fine. I have had no ill effects from the concussion fortunately, so there was no reason not to be involved in this game.”

Taylor did confirm though that his jaw is broken: “I have got a small fracture somewhere in my jaw and it is a bit sore now,” said the midfield man after Sunday’s 2-0 defeat.

“But it is just one of those things that will heal and I was given the choice whether I was happy to continue playing with it and I was.

“It is not something that is going to cause me too many problems in the future, providing I don’t go in for any challenges like the one that actually hurt it!”

Good advice.