THE INCIDENTS AT READING were serious and saddening, and I feel for Petr Cech and Carlo Cudicini, but we should not get carried away by accidents. The goalkeepers have been hurt — let’s not damage the sport, as well. Goalkeepers are overprotected already and there is a risk that referees, and perhaps the FA, will do more to look after them. That would be detrimental to the game. We saw it in the World Cup finals, when even tackles that won the ball were punished. It is something that is creeping more and more into football: the authorities’ fear of physical contact and desire to reduce it.

But everyone must accept that football is a tough and sometimes brutal sport, that the risks are ever-present, and to punish aggression to the point where it is all but eliminated would seriously dent the game’s appeal. Without physical contact, football is nothing. Think of injured players and what pops into your mind is probably the image of a bloodied centre half — the famous picture of Terry Butcher, perhaps. Despite the coincidence of two goalkeepers being hurt in the same match on Saturday, life is far more hazardous if you are a centre back or centre forward, and I should know.

All my teeth are capped or braced. My nose was broken three times. One Christmas, I had mesh up my nose for two weeks and when it was removed, it felt like my brain was being pulled out with it. I have been on a pitch when a player has swallowed his tongue.

If you are a goalkeeper, your life has probably never been safer. The medical staff at stadiums are excellent, if you get hurt, and you have your own bodyguard — the referee.

The trend for protecting goalkeepers is overcompensating for the bad old days, when even if the ball did not go in the net, the goalkeeper probably did. Clattering the goalkeeper on purpose used to be commonplace, but that has gone out of the game in the past two decades. I remember letting a few know I was there, shall we say. Not to try to hurt them, but to make them think twice about coming off their line, to intimidate them, make them nervous when they came for crosses.

Of course, certain goalkeepers relished the battle. Neville Southall loved a physical challenge. He would say: “If there’s a hanging cross, I’ll come for you.” Best to steer clear, really.

From one extreme to the other: now, a goalkeeper could be blown over by a gust of wind and a referee would give a foul if there was an opposition player within ten yards. How many times does an official blow for a free kick and you see the attacker looking bemused?

This has allowed shorter, less imposing goalkeepers — José Manuel Reina, Fabien Barthez, Richard Wright, for example — to thrive, when 15 years ago, they would probably not have been physically suited to a top-level career.

Another trend is for goalkeepers to punch the ball. It is partly because they say that the balls swerve more these days and it is also popular with the foreign goalkeepers in England who have a reputation for not relishing the combative nature of our game; Peter Schmeichel excepted, of course. Punching? How dangerous is that. It is a miracle you do not see strikers knocked out cold in every game.

Outfield players cannot lift their elbows; goalkeepers can. Outfield players cannot leap with their knees up, studs showing; goalkeepers can. Yes, they sometimes have to put their heads in harm’s way, as Cech did, but there are compensations, protections and privileges that outfield players do not enjoy.

They say that you have to be mad to be a goalkeeper. Well, maybe. You have to be brave, for sure, but all footballers put their bodies on the line — it is part of the job. And grim though the injuries were to Cech, Cudicini and Shay Given, who suffered a perforated bowel, I’m convinced that between the sticks is the safest place to be on the field. Wear gloves and you are treated with kid gloves. Let’s not go farther down that road because of what happened on Saturday.

GOALKEEPING’S NASTIEST INJURIES — SIX OF THE WORST

JOHN THOMSON (for Celtic, v Rangers, Scottish league, Sept 5, 1931): Thomson died from a fractured skull after his head collided with the knee of Sam English, of Rangers, as they went for the ball.

BERT TRAUTMANN (for Manchester City, v Birmingham City, FA Cup Final, May 5, 1956): The German broke his neck when he dived at the feet of Peter Murphy, yet he stayed on for the final 15 minutes.

RAY WOOD (for Manchester United, v Aston Villa, FA Cup Final, May 4, 1957): Peter McParland, the Villa forward, barged into Wood in the sixth minute, breaking the goalkeeper’s jaw.

CHIC BRODIE (for Brentford, away to Colchester United, League, Nov 28, 1970): His career was ended by a terrier that bounded on to the pitch and barged into him as he collected a backpass, breaking his kneecap.

ANDREAS REINKE (for Werder Bremen, away to Vfb Stuttgart, German league, February 8, 2006): He broke his nose, the bones in his sinuses and fractured his skull. He was asked to write his will before having surgery.

SHAY GIVEN (for Newcastle United, away to West Ham United), League, Sept 17, 2006. He had his bowel perforated in a collision with Marlon Harewood, the West Ham striker.

BILL EDGAR