| The Chelsea goalkeeper suffered a depressed fracture of the skull after a horror collision with Hunt in the first minute of Saturday's Premiership clash at the Madejski Stadium and slipped into unconsciousness after being carried to the dressing room.
Cech, 24, who at that point needed oxygen, was taken to the Royal Berkshire hospital in Reading but late on Saturday night had to be transferred to the specialist neurosurgical unit at the Radcliffe Infirmary in Oxford for the emergency operation.
Hunt protested his innocence last night, insisting: "I can say hand on heart that it wasn't intentional. It was a freak accident and I am so upset that another player has ended up in hospital over it."
Carlo Cudicini, who replaced Cech, was also taken to the Royal Berkshire when he was left unconscious by a collision with Reading's Ibrahima Sonko in second-half stoppage time but was later discharged and spent yesterday resting at home.
John Firth, a leading neurosurgeon, estimated that it would take six weeks for Cech's skull to heal but warned that there could be career-threatening side-effects such as epilepsy.
While Chelsea wait for their Czech Republic keeper to recover, they will call for Hunt to be severely punished.
Jose Mourinho, who plans to go and see a heavily sedated Cech in hospital once he is up to having visitors, accused Hunt of deliberately injuring his player and in a statement yesterday Chelsea backed their manager.
"We endorse the post-match comments of Jose Mourinho regarding the seriousness of these incidents," read the statement. "We will be writing to the FA with our observations."
On Cech, and then Cudicini, the statement added: "The operation was successful but it is too early to give an accurate assessment of his condition."
Cudicini is expected to miss Wednesday's Champions League match against Barcelona with Mourinho left to rely instead on third choice Henrique Hilario.
Hunt clearly flexed his leg to catch Petr
Mourinho felt Sonko should have received a second yellow card for his aerial challenge on Cudicini, but that he did not deliberately hurt the Italian. But he did believe that Hunt should have been dismissed instantly after catching the side of Cech's head with his right knee.
Cech had possession of the ball as he slid towards a rapidly advancing Hunt and Mourinho is convinced that, rather than jump to avoid the goalkeeper, the Reading midfielder dropped his right knee to hurt him.
Hunt, who was making his first Premiership start for Reading and was once sent off as a Brentford player for a two-footed lunge on an opponent, did appear, as Mourinho claimed, to drop his right knee towards Cech before the two men collided.
Mourinho was convinced of it, even if he agreed that Hunt would not have intended to injure Cech to such an extent.
The manager said: "Hunt clearly flexed his leg to catch Petr. He dropped his knee. He didn't go with the foot to try to touch the ball. He went with his knee at the keeper's head.
"Afterwards he was laughing, and for me that was completely unbelievable.
"I'm not sure if Petr is a Catholic, but if he is he should go to the shrine at Fatima because he is lucky to be alive. It was that bad.
"If Petr Cech's mother at home knows he has broken his leg, she is not happy but she is not worried. But when someone's family knows you have had a knee in the head and you've gone to hospital as a consequence, you worry about that.
"I can't say Hunt intended to send Petr to hospital. But it was a very stupid challenge, a challenge that should have brought a red card."
The progress of Cudicini, who swallowed his tongue after his collision and began to turn purple before medical staff cleared his airways, will be monitored. If he suffered concussion, regulations would prevent him playing for at least seven days.
But Cech's situation is more serious and Chelsea will urge the FA not to hide behind FIFA regulations by concluding that, because referee Mike Riley gave a free-kick for the challenge, no more action should be taken.
In their letter to the FA, Chelsea will refer to the fact that Riley askedCech to crawl off the pitch to receive treatment.
Had the experienced international referee seen that the impact was to Cech's head, they believe he would instead have waited for medical experts to arrive.
An FA spokesman said: "We will study the referee's report and the video footage tomorrow before deciding whether any further action can be taken." "The Best part of Having a Cancer is you can smoke as much as you want" - A Cancer Paitent
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