‘Showed they’re professionals’: Slavia Prague keeper hails Arsenal pair for sporting gesture

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Slavia Prague keeper Ondřej Kolář has hailed Hector Bellerin and Bernd Leno for checking on him prior to last week’s Europa League encounter at the Emirates.

Kolář was badly injured by the high boot of Rangers striker Kemar Roofe in his side’s 2-0 round of 16 second leg win at Ibrox last month.

The incident left him with a fractured skull, and like countryman Petr Cech he will now have to play with a made-to-measure head guard for the remainder of his career.

Despite his injury, Kolář was between the sticks for the Czech side’s 1-1 draw against Mikel Arteta’s team in the quarter-final first leg, and in an interview with iDNES.cz he commended a sporting gesture from two Arsenal players.

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The 26-year-old said: “Before the match, their captain Hector Bellerin and keeper Bernd Leno came to see me even though the ref didn’t want to allow it for safety reasons.

“Leno shook my hand and asked me how I was and said ‘Don’t worry, you’re safe from us.’

“When I went for a high ball, not one of their players tried to push me or hit me. They showed they are professionals.”

As for his condition, Kolář explained: “I’m not completely fine yet. The fracture of the nose won’t heal for nine weeks and I have a scar over my eyebrows which will probably stay there forever. It’s a mess, but it’s turned out well.

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“Obviously, I have to wear the head guard forever. I have the same agents as Petr Cech and he told me that if I needed anything or required any equipment, just to call him. That pleased me.”

Arsenal took the lead with four minutes remaining in London thanks to Nicolas Pepe, but the visitors equalised with a vital away goal three minutes into injury-time from Tomáš Holeš.