Hull City midfielder Ryan Mason suffered a life-threatening head injury during January's Premier League clash with Chelsea.

The 26-year-old England international almost died and required emergency brain surgery after fracturing his skull.

On Tuesday, Mason gave an exclusive interview with talkSPORT’s Jim White in which he spoke in detail about the help he had received from legendary Premier League goalkeeper Petr Cech.

The Arsenal number one has worn a protective cap ever since suffering a life-threatening head injury during a 1-0 Chelsea win over Reading in 2006.

Cech experienced severe headaches in the aftermath of the awful collision with Stephen Hunt.

“I can’t speak highly enough of Petr Cech," Mason said on talkSPORT. "He’s set the standards of what it is to be a proper man and a gentleman."

“Straightaway [after the incident] he contacted my family and my fiancée and reassured us that what we were going through was normal and to be expected, with not being able to talk and struggling with light and everything like that.

“As soon as I got a bit more strength I was keen to see him because he said, ‘as soon as you’re ready, I’d like to come round and speak to you’.

“I think it was after about eight or nine weeks he came round. I was a bit worried at first because I hadn’t really spoken to anyone for longer than ten minutes.

“He walked through the door, sat on my sofa and said, ‘just sit back, don’t say anything, just listen’ and he spoke for about an hour and a half.

“I didn’t say anything, he just spoke and it was brilliant because when he left my partner said, ‘wow, the things we were a little bit worried about’. It just reassured us that everything we were going through was part of the process of recovery.

“We’ve been in touch ever since. He’s been round to the house again and we speak on the phone regularly. He’s been fantastic.”

Mason spoke about returning to first team football in a separate appearance on Sky Sports' The Debate show.

"Physically I'm completely fine," he said. "But my skull still needs to do a little bit of healing. It's not fully fused together yet."

"But when that day comes hopefully I'm in the physical condition to go straight back in."

Signed for £13m in 2016, the former Spurs academy player is Hull's club record signing but has only made 15 starts for the Tigers.