Of all the professions where a couple of broken shoulders would be problematic, being a football goalkeeper surely ranks among the highest.

Knocks and niggles are part and parcel of life as a footballer, but most players wouldn't risk soldiering on with a broken bone - let alone two of the buggers! But then again, Petr Cech isn't like most players.

The Chelsea legend broke his shoulder halfway through his first season at Stamford Bridge, but rather than flagging the problem, he decided to play on through the pain. In an odd way, his self-sacrifice made sense. Cech was in the form of his life and Chelsea were closing in on their first league title for 50 years at the time.

True to form, the Blues ended the campaign as champions and set a new record for least goals conceded in a single season with just 15. Cech also set a new Premier League clean sheet record after keeping his opponents at bay a whopping 24 times.

His gamble, it's fair to say, paid off. But then, at the start of his second season, he broke his other shoulder. But did such a debilitating setback force him onto the treatment table? Did it heck!

"I played my second season with [two] broken shoulders," Cech told Chelsea's website back in 2020. "I was trying to get the pain low for the games and find ways to train properly so I didn’t feel the unbelievable pain every day, which was difficult to avoid.

"I thought about having surgery during the second season, but I didn’t want to risk missing the World Cup in Germany that summer. Nobody really knew how long it would take me to come back."

Mercifully, the former Czech Republic international got surgery in the summer of 2006, and when he returned to fitness he was finally pain free. But his clean bill of health didn't last long.

In a match against Reading in October 2006, Cech was sickeningly kneed in the head by Stephen Hunt and was subsequently rushed to hospital for emergency surgery. Doctors later told him he nearly lost his life, owing to the fact his skull is abnormally thin by virtue of being a triplet.

Incidentally, Cudicini - who came on for Cech that day - was also taken to hospital after being knocked out cold by Reading's Ibrahima Sonko. John Terry spent the remainder of the game in goal, and kept a clean sheet as the Blues ran out 1-0 winners.

Many fans believe Cech was never quite the same after his injury, though the 41-year-old has a much more positive outlook on things. "When you come back from a career-threatening or life-threatening injury, you don’t think about pressure. I just enjoyed every moment," he said.

"I suddenly realised every game could be my last one. So whenever I played from then on, I enjoyed it because I had another game to play. I was so happy the journey hadn’t ended in Reading. It was a positive feeling and played a part in my recovery. Every game felt like medicine for me."

Cech played 494 games for Chelsea across a trophy-laden 11 year spell. He has more clean sheets than any keeper in Premier League history (202) and still holds the record for most clean sheets in a single season, as well as the record for most career Premier League Golden Glove awards (four, tied with Joe Hart).

He's also won four Premier League titles, five FA Cups, three League Cups and the Champions League and is widely regarded as one of the finest to ever strap on a pair gloves. In short, Cech was bloody good... and can you imagine how much better he'd have been with healthy shoulders?