Petr Cech: Chelsea Goalkeeper to Undergo Surgery for Elbow Injury

Chelsea received an unsettling piece of news today—goalkeeper Petr Cech has to undergo surgery from an injury he picked up during the Czech Republic's World Cup qualification campaign this weekend.

According to The Guardian, Czech Republic team physician Petr Krejci said the injury is serious enough for the Blues to schedule Cech for surgery next summer after the Premier League season ends:

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"An investigation showed a bit of ossification in his elbow, so they [Chelsea] are planning a surgery in England after the season," Krejci told the Czech news agency CTK. "They have asked us if we could rest him in friendly fixtures. We have come to an agreement with [Czech Republic manager] Michal Bilek and decided to be on good terms with Chelsea. We are going to grant their wish and rest him."

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The same newspaper reports that Krejci went on to say that there's "nothing to be worried about" but he justified his ease about the situation by saying that there's "basically nothing that could make this problem worse."

I don't know how much comfort that little tidbit brings to Stamford Bridge. Nor do I know how encouraging it is that Krejci also said:

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"The only thing that could force an immediate surgery is if the intensity of pain would get much higher or if the elbow was blocked in some way."

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So, to recap, Cech has sustained a serious enough elbow injury that will keep him out of international competition for about a year and won't get much worse unless it's hit in some way.

There's not much of a chance of Cech's elbow getting knocked around, unless you count all the set-pieces and corner kicks he'll face with a dozen players buzzing all around him.

You know there's more than one player licking his chops, waiting for the day he can "accidentally" (yet, legally) throw himself Cech's way in pursuit of a header.

What do you think, Chelsea supporters? Will Cech's injury surface sooner rather than later? Should Blues manager Roberto Di Matteo start the search for Cech's replacement? Or is all of this the media making mountains out of molehills?