Thom Evans on injury: "It felt like a Bullet through my body."

thomond2006

Thom Evans: It felt like a bullet through my body

Rugby international Thom Evans has spoken for the first time of the horror neck injury that cut short his Six Nations season and sparked fears for his long-term health. He said he felt like a bullet had ripped through his body. The Glasgow Warriors wing spent almost a fortnight in a Cardiff hospital and was operated on twice after being injured in a collision with Lee Byrne shortly before half-time in Scotland’s match with Wales on February 13. His older brother Max was playing alongside him.

The Zimbabwe-born player, who visited the Scotland camp to deliver an emotional pre-match talk shortly before their victory over Ireland last weekend, has now resumed light training and is hopeful of regaining full fitness. Recovering at home in Glasgow, his spine held in place with screws and a metal cage, he said the injury left him unable to move his legs. He added that the agony of learning Scotland had lost the game because of a stunning late collapse was more excruciating than the physical pain he endured.

In an interview with The Sunday Times, he recalls every second of running at full tilt into Byrne, the Welsh full-back, as well as its agonising aftermath. “I remember getting up off the ground, having been half-tackled, and running into Lee and having my arms pinned. Then I felt like a shot had gone through my body. It was like nothing I have ever experienced before. I couldn’t feel my legs, which was really scary.”

The numbness was soon replaced by an agony that surged through his body. “A couple of seconds later the feeling started to come back, but then I started to feel almost like I was being crushed by something. I had no idea, but that pain was the dislocation of my spine.”

Evans believes he owes his health, and possibly even his life, to Dr James Robson, the Scotland team medic, who held him in the correct position and instantly recognised the dangers. “If James hadn’t been there so quickly I might have tried to move and caused more serious damage. I’ll forever be grateful for the excellent medical care I received and I can’t thank them enough. They made the difference between me spending the rest of my life in a wheelchair and where I am now — which is trying to get back to running at the pace I did before.”

Evans, who has 10 caps, said the treatment at the University of Wales Hospital had been excruciating. “They couldn’t give me anything for the pain in case it relaxed the spine, which was a bit of a nightmare. I wanted to know what the final score was and couldn’t believe that we lost the game. The first time I watched the footage of the injury was really tough for me. But, hand on heart, I can say that losing the game was much more painful for me. The injury didn’t look that bad to me and I feel I have been in a thousand more serious contact situations.”

The 24-year-old former Wasps back, who used to play guitar in the boy-band Twen2y4Se7en, supporting the likes of Westlife, Peter Andre and McFly, has received thousands of goodwill messages from the Scottish rugby community as well as a note from Sean Connery. “He very kindly left me a voice message when I was in hospital. He is a big rugby fan and said I’d been dealt a hard blow, but sent his best wishes. He is an icon of mine so I was delighted he took the time to leave me such a fantastic message.”

Connery also encouraged Evans to attend his annual fundraising fashion show. “Walking down the catwalk at Dressed to Kilt in New York is something I have set as a personal goal. I’m going to wear a kilt in the SRU tartan and the Scottish rugby top and hopefully carrying a ball as well. It is a huge honour to be invited and I’m looking forward to personally thanking Sir Sean.”

Evans, who also returned to the dressing room to raise morale before his teammates took on England, can now jog and is working hard to regain his fitness. “Going into the Six Nations I was in the best condition of my life. After the injury I couldn’t even stand up. Now, I’m improving every day.

“Max has been trying to get me to slow down and not push it too much. I think he is just worried that the sooner I get back, the sooner his place will be in jeopardy.” He stresses that he is joking and that he is yet to decide whether he wants to attempt a comeback. “I’m just trying to get back to fitness slowly and I’m going to make that decision at the end of the season. It’s something that I’ll need to think hard about. At the moment I’m not sure. Max has said he’ll be 100% behind me no matter what decision I end up making.”

The wing insisted the experience had left him with no bitterness and instead had made him more philosophical. “You see these horrendous injuries but you never think it is going to happen to yourself. Now little things in life which used to bother me really don’t seem important. I’m sure I’ll get down at some points but the injury has given me a different perspective on things. I can’t stop thinking about how lucky I’ve been and hopefully that will make me a happier person in future.”

Scotland, who lost Evans’ fellow back three players Chris Paterson and Rory Lamont in the same match, recorded their first win of this season’s Six Nations in Dublin last weekend. That allowed them to avoid the wooden spoon. As well as speaking to the players before that game, Evans had presented fly-half Dan Parks, who would go on to kick the winning penalty, with his jersey on what was his 50th cap.

“It was a touching moment,” Parks said. “He came through and met the guys. Thom is a great guy and I miss playing with him. It was very emotional. I don’t think there was a dry eye in the house. It was great to see him walking about.”

Scotland’s next game is at home to Japan, a warm-up fixture for a two-Test tour of Argentina in June.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/rugby_union/article7078593.ece

mjp

Quite a remarkable story and didnt realise how serious his injury was or how close he was to never walking again. I feel that it is only a matter of time before we see more career ending injuries in the professional game as the speed and intensity of the tackles and the collisions is getting more fierce every year. I dont think the rugby governing bodies are treating this matter serious enough and its going to take something similar to Thom Evans story to happen for them to take action.
If you only compare rugby to the American football game and consider the padding and protection worn by the americans and to think that the majority of the guys in our game dont wear anything similar you only then realise how tough and fit these athletes are

PhatPiggins

mjp wrote: »

Quite a remarkable story and didnt realise how serious his injury was or how close he was to never walking again. I feel that it is only a matter of time before we see more career ending injuries in the professional game as the speed and intensity of the tackles and the collisions is getting more fierce every year. I dont think the rugby governing bodies are treating this matter serious enough and its going to take something similar to Thom Evans story to happen for them to take action.
If you only compare rugby to the American football game and consider the padding and protection worn by the americans and to think that the majority of the guys in our game dont wear anything similar you only then realise how tough and fit these athletes are

Went to the Churchill Cup in Denver last year. Its a big American football city, the locals couldn't believe the intensisty of the hits and the fact that most of the players wear nothing more then a gum shield. Neil Best was a particular crowd favourite.

wixfjord

The hits in American football are far bigger in general though and much more dangerous than the arms wrapped around tackle (helmet on helmet no arms etc) Without padding there would be unbelieveable injuries in American football, where the run up to a tackle us longer, players are quicker generally and bigger/more muscle too. A lot of people who don't watch American football don't realise this and write off pad wearing players as less of a man or whatever. I wouldn't like to see Brian o driscoll play as a running back with mo pads on in the NFL that's for sure! :eek:

Crash

Well no, part of the reason American Football tackles are so big is because of the pads - advances in sports gear led to bigger hits led to advances in sportsgear, ad infinitum.

wixfjord

Absolutely no way I'm taking that crash I'm afraid! Soyour saying that because they have pads on they hit harder?! Don't agree. Af hits are generally open field, full on runs by faster and bigger players with a lot less restrictions. Pads may have something to do with this, but my original point was hits in af are bigger which you seem to agree with!

Crash

I'm not saying its purely down to that, but padding does assist that. As hits get bigger, thanks to the game itself, players fitness regime etc., padding comes in to protect players. The off shoot is that a player who was already a big guy, plus padding to protect himself, can then push his body that little bit further in the point of contact. If padding was never introduced to the AFL, I seriously doubt the hits would be quite as big as they are currently.

edit: just realised I forgot to make my actual related point

Without padding there would be unbelieveable injuries in American football

But thats like saying that with pads there would be no injuries in Rugby - its an irrelevant point, padding is so intertwined into the sport that it'd be suicide to play without it. The game is designed for padding.

niceoneted

As negative as it sounds I thought he wouldn't walk again after the incident. He showed no movement what so ever. I feel from experience of seeing such injuries players tent to make some movement of the hand or otherwise to let family/friends at home/watching that they are ok.
I had someone on the inside in the hospital giving me progress reports and it is great to see he is well on the mend.