Goalkeeper safety

[Obi Wan Asterix]

Wenger fears for keepers' safety

Wenger is worried that a keeper could die on the football field
Arsene Wenger fears a goalkeeper could be killed on the football field unless they are given more protection.
Chelsea keeper Petr Cech fractured his skull after colliding with Reading's Stephen Hunt on Saturday.

The Arsenal boss said it was no coincidence more keepers were suffering serious injuries during matches.

But he added: "I can't imagine a player will go in to try to hit another player on the head with his knee because you know you can kill the player."

Wenger said there had been four instances in the past six months in which goalkeepers had been badly injured.

Chelsea's second-choice keeper Carlo Cudicini was also stretchered off in Saturday's match after colliding with Ibrahima Sonko.

Middlesbrough's Mark Schwarzer fractured a cheekbone after a collision with Dean Ashton in April, while Newcastle's Shay Given needed surgery after tearing a bowel in a challenge with Marlon Harewood in September.

Children don't want to see their fathers end up with lifelong damage, driven around in a wheelchair

Jens Lehmann
"This year there have been four incidents. It cannot be coincidence," Wenger said.

And the Arsenal boss admitted he feared a serious injury to his keeper Jens Lehmann.

"In some games, Jens has been targeted," he said.

Lehmann also voiced concern about goalkeepers' safety, saying someone could end up in a wheelchair if they were not protected.

"I really felt sorry for both Petr Cech and Carlo Cudicini. It made me really, really angry too.

"I'm upset still because it happened to Schwarzer and Given. Now it's happened to Cech and Cudicini.

"All of them are great keepers, very brave. They never went to challenge or harm the striker, but all four of them got knocked out due to what are called 'clumsy' challenges.

"This word clumsy makes me really angry as well because these stupid TV pundits say sometimes 'it's clumsy' and 'it's a man's game'.

"Yes it is a man's game, but what you have to consider as well is these men have children and wives and their children don't want to see their fathers end up with lifelong damage, driven around in a wheelchair or not being able to work anymore."

Cech 'conscious' after operation

Cech was injured in the first minute of the game
Chelsea say Petr Cech has regained full consciousness after undergoing surgery on his fractured skull.
Keeper Cech, 24, was hurt in the first minute of Chelsea's win over Reading after colliding with Stephen Hunt and could miss the rest of the season.

A Chelsea statement said Cech's condition is improving and that he has been visited by family and team-mates.

However, Cech's father said his son will be sidelined for a year and called for hunt to receive a lengthy ban.

"This was no accident," said Cech Snr told The Sun newspaper. "Hunt hit him on purpose and Petr will be out for a year.

"[Manchester City's] Ben Thatcher received an eight-week ban [for a challenge on Portsmouth's Pedro Mendez] but I would be harsher than that.

Hunt has denied deliberately injuring Cech but Blues boss Jose Mourinho has asked the FA to review the incident.

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

Peter Hamlyn, consultant neuro-surgeon

Hunt said: "I can guarantee that I did not attempt to injure Petr and I am very upset that the collision has resulted in such a bad injury.

"When Petr slid in to collect the ball, our momentum meant that a collision was unavoidable.

"I think the TV pictures show that the collision was a complete accident, and I'd like to think that my team-mates and opponents throughout my career in football would say that I'm not the kind of person to deliberately hurt an opponent.

"Serious injury is the worst part of football and I feel terribly sorry for Petr. I have written to him to wish him a full recovery."

Reading boss Steve Coppell added: "We support Stephen 100%. He is a fair and honest player, and anybody who knows him would agree that he is not the kind of person to hurt Petr Cech on purpose.

"We hope Petr makes a full recovery and is back playing soon."

Cech underwent a successful operation at the Radcliffe Infirmary's specialist neuro-surgical unit in Oxford.

Mike Riley has told Keith Hackett that he did not request Petr Cech to leave the field of play

Referees' statement

Fellow keeper Carlo Cudicini was also carried off during the match after a collision with Reading's Ibrahima Sonko and Chelsea have not commented on how long either player will be sidelined.

"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."

Mourinho has called for action to be taken over the challenges of Hunt and Sonko but the Football Association is yet to receive a formal complaint from Chelsea.

Meanwhile referee Mike Riley has rejected claims he ordered Cech to leave the field for treatment.

Cech did crawl towards the touchline but Riley has told referees chief Keith Hackett he followed the correct protocol for head injuries.

I know of a teenage goalkeeper that died in my town after being pushed aggessively into a goalpost with his head.

This is an unfortunate topic... but I am interested in hearing your views.

[Pelayo]

Well, being a goalkeeper is dangerous, certainly now the game has got so much more physical than it used to be, but incidents like this don't happen that much either, so I don't know. I remember a couple of years ago, a keeper in Spain, I think it was the keeper of Salamanca, lost his right lung in an incident.He got out to get the ball from the feet of the player, and the player trying to avoid him jump and fell on his chest with his spikes, the guy had his lung perfored.And I'm talking about some 30 years ago.So safety it's not an issue of today,it has always been dangerous I guess,but again this are sporadic accidents,it doesn't happen that much. And I also think that it's not only an issue for goalkeepers,when I see some tackles out there or defenders often using their elbows when jumping for a ball I think the possibility of getting really hurt is an issue for everyone.And besides football is acontact sport,so sometimes accidents can occur.

[Rhah]

Its difficult, because if they change the rules to discourage any challenges on the goalkeeper it could be detrimental to the game.
The incident with Cech is more an example of absolute recklessness from the player (Hunt) who injured him. Saying that, I dont think it was deliberate because if it were he would surely have left his foot in rather than risk losing a kneecap.
Maybe Keepers should be given some sort of protective gear to wear? some sort of headguard or something. It wouldnt restrict their movement too much and would offer at least some protection from bad challenges. Whether that would have helped in Cech's case is debatable though. The guy is lucky to be alive.

[Shaun]

If you give goalkeepers too much saftey then players will be too afraid to do anything in the classic goal mouth scramble. It already is to far if you ask me, the Cech incident was a freak one, it very rarely happens. As it is, you cannot touch the keeper if he has the ball in his hands, all the keeper has to do is get the ball in his hands and then its over, if you even accidentally nudge him its at least a free kick to them, its too much of a stop start affair, keepers should only have protection when the have the ball firmly clasped to thier stomach or chest.

[Fenris]

Bah I guess you could allow goalkeepers to wear some kind of thin helmets but never force it on them, a bit like karate helmets maybe... but not that I am too much for it either, cause everything is dangerous and these days everything seems to get "too" dangerous... but hey, soon we'll have to cushion the floor in case we hurt ourselves falling down...

[Hakkar]

Maybe it happened because for Hunt it was first match and he want to show his trainee how good he is and that he is pushing on every chance he will got....that should be the problem, every player want to play and if they havent so many opportunities to play then this should be result, I never saw that Ronaldinho or Henry or others played like this ...and to be honest I think that Hunt maybe "kicked" Cech by accident but attempt on Cudicini was real bad, this player knows that he will hit him .... that wasnt accident ...and thats the problem, we still have players which are aggresive too much ...

PS: if you give some defence to goalkeepers then we will play hockey and not football

[Obi Wan Asterix]

I don't know.

I played soccer (football( and am minorly handicapped (chronic arthiritis in my ankle) because of it.

In all honesty I am sadenned by the fact that the beautiful game is the technically skilled bit. People I think conciously like technically skilled players. There players just don't make it in the game without receiving a whopping intentional injury sooner or later...

Michael Owen was never the same after intentional fouls knocked him out

I think subconciously people like the Patrick Vieras i.e. the physical game.

Given the fact that this world cup was very physical, and was one of the worst world cups ever... I would introduce video evidence and set new rule restricting physical play. This is the only thing that prevents more goals in the game. When small teams go to play bigger teams with technically skilled players... they know their only hope of winning is winning the physical battle.

[Hakkar]

In all honesty I am sadenned by the fact that the beautiful game is the technically skilled bit. People I think conciously like technically skilled players. There players just don't make it in the game without receiving a whopping intentional injury sooner or later...
Michael Owen was never the same after intentional fouls knocked him out
I think subconciously people like the Patrick Vieras i.e. the physical game.
Given the fact that this world cup was very physical, and was one of the worst world cups ever... I would introduce video evidence and set new rule restricting physical play. This is the only thing that prevents more goals in the game. When small teams go to play bigger teams with technically skilled players... they know their only hope of winning is winning the physical battle.

I agree, more cards in one season and players like Viera will have a problem to play ...yep I will prefer technical game and players too.

[spirit_of_rob]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/foot...ea/6060104.stm

is it just me who is sick of Mr Whiney? Yes its bad his two keepers were badly hurt but how does attacking all and sundry help?

[Justinian]

If you give goalkeepers protection like a helmet it can be very dangerous to the other players, too. When two players slam into eachother you have to worry about both players, not just one, and if one is wearing a helmet the other one is probably going to get injured badly.

[Reidy]

Goalies will not be wearing helmets any time soon. Light padding maybe, but not helmets or kevlar.

For reference:

Cech starts with a bang
Cudicini flying through the air

To be honest the Cudicini injury looks more horrific than Cech's. In both cases it was the over-eagerness of the players that caused the injury, not the keepers being reckless.

[Sétanta]

If you start making inhibiting rules to prevent this from ever happening, then it can ruin the game. This is really a fluke, should never happen. So why does anything need to be changed? The players should be very clear on the rules and what is dangerous, but nothing else is neccessary in my opinion.

[Shaun]

Exactly, Mudd. This is an extremely rare occurence, now that it happened im sure players will now be extra cautious.

[Logue]

Granted more people get injured outfield but when a keeper takes a knock chances are its gonna be a bad one, but still its football its a game accidents happen. There really is no need to give them helmets or something stupid like padding, i wouldn't mind if the changed the goal posts from steel to a softer material cause it hurts when u wrap your leg round it .

[Justinian]

Granted more people get injured outfield but when a keeper takes a knock chances are its gonna be a bad one, but still its football its a game accidents happen. There really is no need to give them helmets or something stupid like padding, i wouldn't mind if the changed the goal posts from steel to a softer material cause it hurts when u wrap your leg round it .

Well, changing the goalposts would change shooting on goal a lot - look at Thierry Henry's PK goal tonight vs. Reading, hit the goalpost and reflected in. I doubt it would have done that if they were made of something softer.

[Logue]

Fair point, but i wasn't thinking foam or something like that. Wood maybe, its softer but wouldn't alter the the behaviour of the ball. Anyway i wasn't really pushing for them to change the posts.

[Reidy]

it hurts when u wrap your leg round it .

Like this you mean? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nY40...elated&search=

I agree. Accidents like these are just flukes. You can't do anything about them really.

[Nasheim]

This is just a fluke incident but as per usual a huge fuss is kicked up about, although I suppose it's only to be expected with the two kings of whining, Mourinho and Wenger. Getting battered occasionally is part of the fun of being a goalkeeper; you don't see Rugby managers go crying to the papers asking for their players to be put in suits of armour, football is already non-contact enough, they should bring back all the crunching tackles and shoulder-barges of the 60's and 70's.

As a goalkeeper myself, I don't want stupid laws trying to wrap me in bubble wrap and I don't really want any protection either. Well, other than the shinpads and gloves. Sure it's **** when you take a knock in the knackers or the head but so what.

[Logue]

He forgot the golden rule . But **** me that looked painful .