PETR CECH has revealed he won the Premier League while playing with broken shoulders.
The Chelsea legend won four titles during his 11-year stay at Stamford Bridge.
His first triumph came in the 2004/05 season as Cech formed a formidable defensive unit with centre-backs John Terry and Ricardo Carvalho.
The Blues conceded just 15 goals in 38 league games – the lowest amount a team has ever conceded across a season.
Cech also went a remarkable 1025 minutes without seeing a shot go into his net, keeping a record 24 clean sheets across the campaign.
But the Czech international continued despite being in severe pain throughout the season.
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He explained on the High Performance Podcast: “I played a year-and-a-half with broken shoulders. Both actually.
“Before I had the surgery I had it for 14 months, a broken labrum, I couldn’t lift my arms.
“Nobody knew. I was training, playing, I was doing everything.
“Every single time I dived and made a save I had tears coming down because I was in terrible pain.
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“But I knew I could perform so you just go, okay.
“It probably wasn’t the wisest thing to do, but at the same time I could perform.
“I had terrible pain every single day but I could perform.
“But then I reached the point where I couldn’t lift my arms any more and I said ‘listen’, I will play a World Cup (2006) and then I had the surgery.”
Soon after recovering, Cech sustained a skull fracture that led to him wearing his iconic headguard.
On his recovery and comeback, he added: “I think I played about 107 days after the surgery roughly.
“The first 12 weeks is where you need the skull to consolidate, so the bone to heal.
“The doctors said ‘whatever you do, you can’t do anything for 12 weeks’, because it’s literally impossible.
“You will not be fit or strong enough to even think about doing anything 100 per cent.
“So the first month I was learning little things and going over all these issues with my brain.
” Second month I started physical training on my own.
“The third month I would play tennis, so I had a helmet on all the time.
“I was playing tennis, training, working in the gym. Running, doing things on my own, throwing balls against the wall – things like that.
“Gradually I felt so strong. So then after 12 weeks the doctor said that I might think about going into training where people shoot the ball at you because you’ve got the helmet and should be fine.
“I said okay, let’s go. So I went to training and I was so physically fit. I had two training sessions with the team and then we went to Liverpool.
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“Jose Mourinho asked me if I wanted to play and I said ‘let’s go’ and then I played.
“I felt I was ready and it was the best thing to do.”
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
