October 14 - Goalkeeper’s Folly

IN the black and white days before substitutes were permitted footballers would routinely play on after picking up an injury. Before physios were a fixture of every football bench the best an injured player could hope for was a visit from the mysterious ‘trainer’ who would run on and dab ineffectually at the affected area with a magic sponge and then tell him to get on with it.

Encapsulating this attitude was former Partick Thistle manager John Lambie. On being told one of his strikers was concussed and did not know who he was, Lambie said: “That’s great, tell him he’s Pele and get him back on.”

In the 1956 FA Cup Final Manchester City goalkeeper Bert Trautmann famously carried on playing despite suffering a serious neck injury that left him groggy, and was later revealed to be a broken neck.

On this day in 2006 two Chelsea goalkeepers had to be carried from the field of play after coming a cropper during their match at Reading.

Jose Mourinho took his side to the Madejski Stadium for a League match that was just 16 seconds old when Chelsea ‘keeper Petr Cech went down to get the ball at the feet of Stephen Hunt, and was caught by the Reading striker.

It looked fairly innocuous at first but it was soon apparent Cech was in trouble and after a lengthy delay he was stretchered off and taken to hospital where, the following day, he had surgery for a fractured skull.

Meanwhile, Carlo Cudicini replaced him in goal at Reading, only to be stretchered off himself after being knocked unconscious late on in the match after he was caught by Ibrahima Sonko, leaving captain John Terry in goal for the remainder of the match which Chelsea won 1-0.

Adopting his siege mentality Mourinho lashed out at everyone from the referee Mike Riley to the Reading players and the South Central Ambulance Service who he said had not acted quickly enough, something they angrily denied.

Mourinho said: “The Cech one, the challenge is a disgrace. He is lucky to still be alive. I have to wait and see what the Football Association will do about it and I’m also waiting to hear what the experts think of both incidents.

“Carlo I think was knocked out as a consequence of the way he hit the ground, but a knee coming at Petr like that, at such speed - the boy was even laughing afterwards.

“It was unbelievable and players should respect each other more than that.”

Reading boss Steve Coppell said he was confident neither Hunt nor Sonko were deliberately trying to hurt the Chelsea keepers.

“Steve wanted to put Petr under pressure but there’s no way he’d want to make contact, I know what he’s like,” said Coppell.

Arsenal goalkeeping legend Bob Wilson said he was disappointed by Mourinho’s comments and agreed with Coppell that there was no intent shown by Hunt and Sonko.

“I was sad to hear Jose’s comments after the game,” Wilson told Five Live’s Sportweek programme.

“The first one looked bad because Hunt was trying to move his foot away from Cech but in doing so bent his knee towards his head.

“But keepers expect to get bumps and bruises, it’s part of what we do. We don’t want to be protected all the time.”

Despite initial fears that Cech’s goalkeeping days might be over, he recovered well and was back between the sticks four months later with his protective headgear now an extra piece of his kit which he is likely to wear for the rest of his career.

See the incident below, and just like another armageddon style headline about the economic crisis, we will be back tomorrow. Last year we were bringing you the story of comedy goalkeeper Mark Bosnich doing his Basil Fawlty impression.

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