Peter Cech Takes it for the Team

By: Laurie | April 11th, 2008

If I wereChelsea goalkeeper Petr Cech, I might be considering a safer career.

Like lion tamer. Or bomb squad specialist. Or snake venom collector. Or Iraqi policeman.

Yes, that’s Cech in the photo. You may not recognize him, because a) when he’s been on the field during the past year or so, he’s had to wear protective headgear, ever since Reading’s Stephen Hunt literally put his knee through Cech’s skullbone, and b) his lower face could currently be used as a model for a Frankenstein sculpture.

Cech underwent surgery on his skull back in October, 2006, after that collision and was told not to play for a good long time At the time, his father said he’d be out for a year.

“I would think Cech is likely to be out for at least six months,” Peter Hamlyn, consultant neuro-surgeon and director for the centre of sports and exercise medicine at St Bartholomew’s Hospital told the Daily Telegraph.

“That is about the length of time it takes for stout bone healing to take place. If the brain underlying the fracture has been greatly injured, his time out may be even longer.

“If Petr Cech returns too soon from his head injury, the result could be fatal.”

He was back in light training the following week, and back playing in the EPL (with that headgear) three months later.

He’d been out in the past couple of months with an ankle injury, but recently everything had been fine. Until this week, when he “collided with” teammate Tal Ben Haim. “Collided with” being defined here, I think, as “pretty much had the lower right-hand part of his face ripped off.”

He underwent two hours of surgery and got fifty stitches. (For comparison purposes, I’ve had inch-long cuts that took three or four.)

Cech said he is unaware of how many stitches he required after the collision.

“I don’t know how many of them are there,” added Cech. “During the two-hour surgery I was sleeping and afterwards I did not ask anyone. It is important for me to see the result. And it is much better than when it happened. The plastic surgeon did a great job. The wound looks like a minor facial injury. The wound isn’t protected and it doesn’’t look too big.”

Um…yeah. Sure. Keep telling yourself that, Petr.

Initial reports said that he’d be out for weeks, but now he’s saying he’ll be back in two. The soccer fan in me cheers. The mom in me cringes.

The best part of the article, though? This paragraph.

“It was simply bad luck, in training there are fifty such situations,” said Cech. “It is a little bit frustrating as I was ready for a game and now this comes. I collided with a team mate while we were both going for the ball, my lower lip and chin was torn. I did save the ball as I never want to concede a goal.”

Is this man a soul-deep goalkeeper or what?