7 footballers who returned from career threatening injuries

#2 Petr Cech – skull fracture

Petr Cech was knocked out following his collision with Steven Hunt

It was 14 October 2006, Chelsea was playing against Reading at the Madejski stadium and the match would be remembered for all the wrong reasons. Reading’s Stephen Hunt collided with Cech inside the Chelsea penalty box.

It was extremely careless from Hunt’s part as his knee hit Cech’s head and the latter fractured his skull. Jose Mourinho and the Chelsea fans were somewhere between disbelief and resentment after Hunt’s challenge. Cech was rushed to the Royal Berkshire hospital where he underwent an emergency surgery and suffered from intense headaches for quite some time.

His career was obviously followed by a question mark after suffering a terrible injury of that kind but, the shot-stopper returned to Chelsea’s starting eleven 3 months later on January 20, 2007, when the Blues were playing against Liverpool. He now wears a rugby style head guard which protects his skull.

Cech still commands a lot of respect from the Chelsea fans even though he now plays for their bitter rivals Arsenal.