Chelsea striker Didier Drogba has accused Reading and Ireland's Stephen Hunt of intentionally injuring goalkeeper Petr Cech and laughing when the 24-year-old was carried from the field at the weekend with a depressed skull fracture.
The Czech international suffered the injury when Hunt's knee hit his head in a collision minutes into Chelsea's 1-0 league win at the Madejski Stadium on Saturday.
"Don't tell me tall stories, this was not an accident," Drogba told French Sports Daily L'Equipetoday. "He (Hunt) saw that he was going to collide with Petr and he didn't try to avoid it.
"The worst came after that. When Petr was carried out of the ground, he (Hunt) was laughing...," Drogba was quoted as saying.
Cech underwent surgery and has since regained full consciousness and is improving, Chelsea said yesterday.
Cech's replacement, Carlo Cudicini, was also knocked out later in the game going for a high ball in the goalmouth. He, too, was taken to hospital but discharged later that night and resumed light training yesterday.
"I'm not paranoid but they hate us", Drogba was quoted as saying. "Some people will use any means to beat us."
"We went there to play a match, but we soon realised that the guys facing us were out for the game of the season.
"From the first minute, he (Hunt) tried to intimidate us, to show that he didn't fear us and that we'd better be ready for one hell of a challenge for 90 minutes," he said.
Hunt said yesterday that he had written to Cech wishing him a quick recovery and was adamant the collision in the opening minute was accidental.
"I can guarantee that I did not attempt to injure Petr and I am very upset that the collision has resulted in such a bad injury," he said.
"I think the TV pictures show that the collision was a complete accident and I'd like to think that my team mates and opponents throughout my career in football would say that I'm not the kind of person to deliberately hurt an opponent."
Reading also issued a statement supporting Hunt.
Drogba added that Chelsea will try and dedicate a Champions League win over European champions Barcelona tomorrow, "to Petr and Carlo."
