UNITED KINGDOM: SOCCER / FOOTBALL - Chelsea prepare for Champions League clash with Barcelona and Jose Mourinho complains about ambulance response for injured goalkeeper Petr Cech at Reading game

Record ID: 595522

  • Title: UNITED KINGDOM: SOCCER / FOOTBALL - Chelsea prepare for Champions League clash with Barcelona and Jose Mourinho complains about ambulance response for injured goalkeeper Petr Cech at Reading game
  • Date: 18th October 2006
  • Summary: THIRD CHOICE GOALKEEPER HILARIO, REPLACING INJURED PETR CECH AND CARLO CUDICINI
  • Embargoed: 2nd November 2006 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: United Kingdom
  • Country: United Kingdom
  • Topics: Sports
  • Reuters ID: LVAEA4G2D4VMV5ID40MFCWTLLT8G
  • Story Text: Jose Mourinho said on Tuesday (October 17) that he was shocked when he saw injured Chelsea goalkeeper Petr Cech after an operation on a fractured skull and he stood by his assertion that the challenge that put the player in hospital should be investigated.
    Speaking at a news conference before Wednesday's Champions League match against title holders Barcelona, the Chelsea coach said Cech's condition had improved overnight, however.
    The outspoken Portuguese also complained that it had taken 30 minutes for an ambulance to collect the stricken keeper and take him to hospital.
    "My goalkeeper was 30 minutes in the dressing room waiting for an ambulance. The ambulance arrived 30 minutes after he went to the dressing room. The ambulance couldn't go in the direction of the dressing room. He couldn't leave the dressing room properly. He had to go in a wheelchair when he had the injury he had, he had to go in a wheelchair in a lift and he left the pitch 30 minutes -- 30 minutes -- after my doctor was calling for a urgent ambulance. If my goalkeeper dies (died) in that dressing room or in that process, it is something English football has to think about," said Mourinho.
    The Czech Republic goalkeeper is likely to be out for several months after he was caught on the head by a sliding Stephen Hunt during Saturday's Premier League game at Reading. Hunt has apologised and denied the challenge was deliberate, a view supported by his club and the players' association.
    Chelsea are asking the FA to investigate the challenge as well as the problems getting Cech to hospital.
    A Reading club statement said Mourinho's remarks contained "very serious factual inaccuracies". A spokesman for the South Central Ambulance Service also rejected Mourinho's remarks and backed Reading, saying there were 26 minutes from being called out to reaching the hospital.
    Chelsea captain John Terry said some of the players had gone to see Cech in hospital.
    "He took his oxygen mask off and spoke to the lads, you know. He's very tired obviously from the operation but, you know, he had time and he seemed OK and had conversations with the lads about the game, you know and wanted to know what happened after, things like that, you know. But he's doing well and he's doing much better this morning as well," said Terry.
    Mourinho had said on Saturday Cech was lucky to be alive.
    "When a player goes direct with knee to the face he doesn't want to avoid," Mourinho said after the game.
    On Tuesday he said: I don't change one single word of my interviews after the game." Mourinho said every time he watched a tape of the incident he felt sure the judgement he made after the match had been correct.
    The incident, which was followed by substitute goalkeeper Carlo Cudicini also being carried off unconscious after a goalmouth clash, has caused a furore. Commentators including Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger and goalkeeper Jens Lehmann have suggested goalkeepers should be better protected.
    Mourinho said Barcelona were also without key players such as African player of the year Samuel Eto'o.
    Cech's injury overshadowed the Champions League game in which third-choice keeper Hilario, signed in June, will make his Chelsea debut.
    Mourinho said the English champions could not go a whole season with only two goalkeepers, even if Cudicini was expected to be fit to play again next week.
    The coach, whose meetings with the Spanish champions in the past two years have been tense, confrontational and controversial affairs, said Wednesday's atmosphere would be calmer because it was not a knockout but a group game.
    Defender Ashley Cole, midfielder Claude Makelele and Drogba who were all carrying slight injuries, trained normally on Tuesday and should be available for selection.
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