Petr Cech reveals he spent second season at Chelsea with TWO broken shoulders shortly before fracturing skull in horror collision at Reading
Petr Cech has revealed he spent his second season at Chelsea playing with TWO broken shoulders.
The Blues swooped in to sign the goalkeeper for £8million from Rennes in 2004, and he went on to become one of the club’s greatest-ever players.
Cech has conceded he spent his second season at Chelsea playing with two broken shoulders following his horror collision with Hunt
Cech, one of the best keepers to ever grace the English top flight, made 494 appearances for the Blues while collecting four Premier League titles, four FA Cups, three League Cups, a Champions League crown and a Europa League triumph.
However, Cech’s career was dealt a major scare when he collided with Reading forward Stephen Hunt in 2006 – an injury which left the goalkeeper needing to sport protective head gear for the remainder of his time as a professional.
The injury was life-threatening and the Czech has now revealed he was actually suffering with not one, but TWO broken shoulders prior to the head injury.
“There was one thing I never talked about, and people didn’t know at the time,” he told Chelsea’s official website.
“Halfway through my first season at Chelsea I broke the labrum in my shoulder. I carried on and finished the season.
“It felt like during the summer it would recover. It didn’t! During the second season I already had a massive problem with my shoulder and I was protecting it.
“Then, in the first part of my second season, I did exactly the same thing to my other shoulder. So I played my second season with broken shoulders!
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“I was trying to get the pain low for the games and find ways to train properly so I didn’t feel the unbelievable pain every day, which was difficult to avoid.
“I thought about having surgery during the second season, but I didn’t want to risk missing the World Cup in Germany that summer. Nobody really knew how long it would take me to come back.
“To my relief I decided to have the surgery after the World Cup. I came back fast from that and I was enjoying games and not having pain while training and moving. A few games later, we played Reading!”
After a glittering 11-year spell at Stamford Bridge, Cech joined Arsenal in 2015 and spent four years with the Gunners before returning to Stamford Bridge in a technical advisor role.
And he has expressed his pride at being able to recover from such a horrific injury to achieve what he did in the game.
Cech joined Arsenal in 2015 and spent four years there before hanging up his gloves
“When you come back from a career-threatening or life-threatening injury, you don’t think about pressure,” he explained.
“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.
“I was so happy the journey hadn’t ended in Reading. It was a positive feeling and played a part in my recovery. Every game felt like medicine for me.
“Leading to the end of the season and the FA Cup final, it felt like there was no other outcome than us winning it. I was so positive. It was a great joy and satisfaction.
“It was the first FA Cup we won together as a group, and it felt like the right end to the season.”
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