Serious neck injury was a freak accident

A MILLION to one accident is being cited as the cause of an accident which has left a Guernsey first-teamer in a specialist London hospital with a serious neck injury. The front-row forward who, at the family and the club's request has not yet been identified, underwent a seven-hour operation at the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital at Stanwell in north London after being injured in Guernsey's 13-7 London Three South-West victory over Tottonians in Southampton on Saturday.

Coach Colin McLatchie spoke yesterday of the devastation felt by the club and, particularly, the players who learned of the seriousness of the injury after they had returned to the island.

The exact condition of the player is unknown but McLatchie revealed: 'He's had serious trauma and had surgery. The recovery process is very slow.

'His family and girlfriend are with him.'

The incident happened 15 minutes into the match at Totton.

McLatchie said: 'There was a scrum and the ref called ''crouch and hold''.

'The player wasn't fully upright and his head hit the upper shoulder and arm of his opposite number, causing a serious neck injury.'

The stricken player immediately hit the ground.

'He went straight down, ' said McLatchie who has been trained in first aid, along with his assistant, John Colley, who was acting physio for the game.

'We immediately immobilised his head and called straightaway for an ambulance.'

The two sets of players returned to the changing rooms until after the ambulance took the injured forward away less than half-an-hour after the accident happened.

McLatchie said it was a tough decision whether to continue or abandon the match.

The decision was left in the hands of the Tottonians captain and himself.

They opted to continue.

'He was fully conscious and reasonably alert and cheery given the circumstances.

'He had feeling at that point,' said the coach who, after 35 years of rugby, said 'it's the worse thing I've had to deal with'.

While Guernsey did enough to win the match McLatchie's mind was elsewhere.

'It's the lowest I've ever felt.'

Most severe neck injuries were, McLatchie said, as the result of collapsed scrums or high tackles, but this incident was different . . . 'a freak accident . . . a million to one shot.

'This is the first time in the long history of the club we've had to deal with something like this,' he added.