This is real tough ...
Cech starts on long road to recovery By Oliver Brown 28/10/2006 - The Daily Telegraph
Petr Cech cut a frail but far from forlorn figure yesterday as he offered a highly personal account of the injury that has shattered his season. The Chelsea goalkeeper, normally such a daunting physical presence, has made a heartening initial recovery from his depressed skull fracture but showed, in his first interview since that fateful clash with Reading's Stephen Hunt two weeks ago how far he still has to go.
"It will be really difficult, because I can't move for a long time – 15 to 20 minutes, and then I am exhausted," he said. "Sometimes you wake up and you have a horrible headache, so you have to take your medication and it's very strong. After, you feel really tired really quickly. I just try to live with that and I hope that every day it's going to get better."
Cech, who needed emergency surgery to have two metal plates inserted in his skull, bore visible signs of the ordeal, with shaven hair and a long scar down the left side of his head. His rehabilitation begins next week under the watch of Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho and club doctor Bryan English, and he appreciates how the path back to fitness must be gentle.
"Even with the metal in your head, you need some recovery," Cech said. "They will prepare some programme for me – massage, little walks, these kinds of things, so I start maintaining my body. I hope I will be able to go back as soon as I can."
Since the collision that left him stricken on the pitch at the Madejski Stadium, triggering a fevered debate over the safety of goalkeepers, Cech has not wanted for sympathy from his partners in the trade. Ricardo at Sporting Lisbon has written a letter to him, while Newcastle's Shay Given has sent a text.
The message from Given, himself convalescing from a perforated bowel after a clash with West Ham's Marlon Harewood, struck a particular chord. "He's injured, he knows how it feels," Cech said. "He sent me a message wishing me a speedy recovery, so I was very happy. I could keep going with that."
As for the incident itself, the goalkeeper's memories are clouded and his feelings raw. He was floored in the first minute of the match against Reading as Hunt's knee connected with his head, and admitted his struggle to recall the moment of impact.
"The last thing I remember is the shaking hands before the game started," Cech said. "I remember the warm-up, I remember all the way from the hotel to the stadium, because usually I always take the programme and I read a little bit. I go around the pitch, I want to see what the pitch is looking like. I don't even remember the kick-off."
Uncomfortable as it made him, Cech described how he has watched the incident replayed on television. "I have seen it once and I was surprised," he told Chelsea TV. "I thought it happened on the other side of the head. So that just proves that I don't remember anything."
For the moment, though, he is content simply to draw strength from his legions of supporters. Referring to the response from Chelsea and beyond as "fantastic", Cech placed greatest emphasis on the support from his wife, Martina. "She was the most important person, because she was every day in the hospital, even days I couldn't remember her.
"She stayed there for 24 hours and she was really tired. She had a lot of things to do but she showed me the love every minute and I really appreciate it."
