Former Chelsea goalkeeper, Petr Cech, says that he has played for the club several times suffering from injury. He revealed that before the skull injury in 2006, he had played with two broken shoulders.
He was transferred from Rennes in 2004 for £7 million. This turned out to be one of the most expensive transfer during those periods. In his time with Chelsea, he turned out to be one of the best goalkeepers in the world. He helped his team won four Premier League, four FA Cup, three League Cup, and a win in both Champions League and Europa League.
He, in an interview with Chelsea’s official website, talked about his head injury that he suffered during a game with Reading. He was injured accidentally by the club’s forward Stephen Hunt. This injury the doctors clarified later as life-threatening when he was hospitalized. After the incident, he needed to wear headgear for protection.
Cech told about other injuries which he didn’t concede in anyone. During this time of the injury, he has learned to take care of himself. In the first half of his initial season in Chelsea, he found out that he has a broken shoulder but he finished the season. In the second season, he broke his other shoulder too but he didn’t undergo surgery as he doesn’t want to miss the World Cup in Germany. He after the World Cup underwent surgery and was able to return soon and he enjoyed playing without any physical pain.
He explains how he started to value every game after the skull injury. He also said that every game was medicine to him. The win in FA Cup after the injury brought great joy and happiness.
“When you come back from a career-threatening or life-threatening injury, you don’t think about pressure. I just enjoyed every moment. I suddenly realised every game could be my last one. So whenever I played from then on, I enjoyed it because I had another game to play,” said Cech.
Cech was transferred to Arsenal after a few years and before his retirement in Arsenal, he was offered a job in Chelsea as technical advisor.