Paul Peschisolido has revealed that he was forced to fake an injury in the build-up to Derby County's play-off win over West Brom in 2007.
The former Birmingham City favourite was in and out of Billy Davies' Rams side and was not expected to start the Wembley showpiece.
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But after a surprise inclusion, Peschisolido has told Derby's official site that Davies came up with an inventive way of throwing people off the scent.
“He said to me: ‘you’ll be playing in the final at Wembley’," Peschisolido recalled.
“I hadn’t been starting so I said ‘pardon?’ and he repeated it and said: ‘but what you have to do is next time we have a training session you are going to pull your groin and I want you to do nothing for the first seven days.
“Tell everyone including the players and staff, everybody that you have pulled your groin. I don’t want anyone to know that you are playing this game’.
“So, I faked injury for that week and went into gradual training after that. I’m thinking whether this is a double bluff and if the reporters don’t think I’m fit, and he doesn’t play me then there won’t be any of that added pressure.
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“But it wasn’t, and he started me that game. Only the two of us knew. Billy had some really strange, bizarre ways of dealing with things, maybe he was trying to find out if there was a mole. I don’t know.”
Derby went on to win that game 1-0 and he believes that should his former side manage to navigate past Aston Villa on May, 27; it is the best way of going up.
“There is no better way of getting promoted. If you can guarantee getting promoted to the Premier League through the play-offs, you would take it all day long.”
