Petr Cech is optimistic that he will not miss the rest of the season and the European Championships this summer. The Chelsea and Czech Republic goalkeeper is recuperating from the serious facial injury he suffered in a training-ground incident with Tal Ben-Haim, the defender, on Sunday.

Cech, 25, immediately had surgery and reports have suggested that he is likely to endure a lengthy layoff, but Avram Grant, the Chelsea first-team coach, said that Cech may return to action in only two weeks.

“I hope I will be back in goal soon,” Cech said. “I will have to wait for what the doctor says. I cannot do anything right now, two days after the anaesthetic. The club said I should be back in two weeks, so we shall see. I believe it will be so.

“If I were a normal patient it could be a sixth-month layoff, but as I have to play football, we are trying to find a way to protect the wound - to be back as soon as possible. My face is sewn, so we must find a way to protect it from tearing again. Once this problem is solved I will restart training. But how long it will take, I do not know.”

Cech had hoped to return to first-team action this week, perhaps for last night's Champions League quarter-final, second leg against Fenerbahçe, after an ankle problem. However, despite his disappointment, the goalkeeper, who has not played since March 1, does not bear a grudge against Ben-Haim.

“We were both trying to stop the goal,” Cech said. “He wanted to kick the ball away and I dived for it at the same time. We hit each other and he tore my face - it was a coincidence.

“When we dived for the ball it was important the goal was not conceded. There are 50 such situations during every training session - it was simply bad luck. It is worse for me that after a long problem with my ankle I had restarted training and could finally play. This season has been awful as regards the injuries - I get rid of one, another comes.

“I spend all the day in the training centre, I try to regain fitness to be ready to return when something happens again. It is frustrating. I thought that I was over the worst. I had problems with my back, calf muscle, side, ligaments in the ankle and now this. But maybe I will have a break from injuries for some time now.”

Cech reportedly needed 50 stitches in an operation lasting two hours and had plastic surgery. He confirmed that he has a scar “from my lip to the chin on the right side of my face”, but he is happy with how the surgery went.

“When I came home, my wife and daughter Adelka recognised I was OK,” he said. “I eat normally and I can eat everything, although I'm only speaking with half of my mouth. The scar will remain, but should be minimal.”

Cech wears a headguard when he plays after suffering a depressed fracture of the skull in a collision with Stephen Hunt, of Reading, last season. He denied that this latest head injury had brought back traumatic memories. “No, I was just thinking about how I would look,” Cech said.