Arsenal keeper Petr Cech has offered his support to Ryan Mason after the Hull City midfielder suffered a fractured skull last month.
The 25-year-old spent a week in hospital after suffering the injury during a collision with Chelsea defender Gary Cahill and is now recuperating at home.
Cech suffered a similar injury 10 years ago while playing for Chelsea but made a fast recovery and returned to the pitch just three months later, although he has been required to wear a protective head mask ever since.
"I offered him my support because I have experience in what he's going through, and I'm happy to share my experience if it helps him," Cech told the Arsenal website. "The possibility to be able to offer him my experience, it was the first thing I had in my mind to do. I'm obviously glad that he's back home and that he's started his recovery process. Hopefully he will get well very soon.
"When you're in this situation, you need people around you to help. Then you have someone who has the experience and can tell you, 'Don't worry about this, it's completely normal, and don't worry about that because I went through it too'.
"It can obviously help because you have a lot of doubts, a lot of questions and nobody seems to have the answer. You can have someone who went through that and they can tell you not to worry about it, it will just take time and that you can carry on doing what you're doing.
"You need your closest around you to help you when you don't feel right. It's a situation which not only involves the person who got injured, but also the people who are supporting him, the people around him like his family. Even for them it's a challenging situation."
Following his discharge from hospital, Mason released a statement admitting that he felt "lucky to be alive".
Neil Wilkes
