Visuals of Mahendra Singh Dhoni spitting blood during India's ICC Cricket World Cup league match against hosts England caught everyone's attention, but the former skipper reportedly hid another, more serious injury in a bid to avoid attention for obvious reasons.

In the match, which India eventually lost, Dhoni was caught in the camera sucking the blood from his right thumb and spitting it. But, according to a recent report, the 38-year-old also braved a finger injury.

“Dhoni has injured a finger during India Vs England match. However, he continued to be in the game even after the injury. The intensity of the damage is so high that it is speculated to be a hairline fracture. It’s hurting the former captain of India so much that he cannot even close his fist," a report in In.com quoted a source close to Dhoni.

After the World Cup, Dhoni made himself unavailable for the West Indies series, and instead joined the Territorial Army. The report further claimes that Dhoni even decided not to have it scanned to avoid attention.

“Dhoni wants to keep this injury a big secret. He doesn’t want any fuss around it. In fact, he has not even got it scanned by the doctors in order to avoid the beans getting spilt. The big reason behind this being the upcoming Territorial Army.

“He doesn’t want the injury to get officially detected for obvious reasons, as he doesn’t want to get disqualified for training," the source was quoted as saying.