Weston keeper Stuart Plant relives frightening neck injury ordeal

On Monday, he was back home in Singleton holding hopes of playing again this NNSW NPL season.

The 30-year-old Englishman is on the road to recovery after a harrowing ordeal that started at Magic Park on Friday night in the opening minute of the second half.

With Broadmeadow 1-0 ahead, Plant was trying to smother a low cross when he collided with Magic's Damon Green. Plant was struck in the back of the neck and grabbed at the area before quickly losing feeling and movement in his body.

Play was soon halted and the round eight game was abandoned 25 minutes later as Plant was attended to, with an ambulance en route.

He was taken to John Hunter Hospital where test results on Saturday cleared him of major damage. The temporary paralysis came from swelling in the spinal canal, and feeling and movement has gradually returned.

"I think everyone is a bit relieved," Plant said on Tuesday. "Especially with what happened and how close it came to coming out as quadriplegia or paraplegia, so I'm very lucky.

"When I was lying in that bed on Friday night looking at the ceiling, my partner Monica is next to me crying, we've got a little one at home, it makes you realise how precious life is and how it can change just like that.

"I can't see anything, I can't feel my body. To how scary that was to yesterday morning - I could walk on my own, I had strength back, so I've come on leaps and bounds."

Plant said the clash was "just one of those things".

"Everyone is going for the ball, that's what happens, it's what you've got to do," he said. "It happened so quick. Straight away, I was like, 'I don't feel good'.

"I remember bits. I didn't black out, but I started feeling nauseous. Then I started losing sensation through my whole body, and the diagnosis of becoming a quadriplegic, paraplegic, it crosses your mind.

"I couldn't keep my eyes open and my whole body was in shock. I was hyperventilating on the pitch, so it wasn't a nice experience."

Plant, though, is keen to return and has not given up on playing again this year.

"Everything is going to come back, it's just going to be a long process," he said.

"By the end of this week, I shouldn't need a crutch and by next week I should be walking fine, and in two more I could hopefully be back to running again.

"See how I go. Obviously I'd love to play again this season, because we've been competitive. We are creating chances and there's a good buzz around the club."

"I feel like we should have beaten Maitland and Jaffas as well. Even against Magic, they were 1-0 up but it was their only shot, from a free kick, and Bowlo [Zac Bowling] at the other end had made two saves I think and we had other chances."

Plant, who came to Australia in 2015 to play for Singleton Strikers, works in the mines as a pump technician. He played at Charlestown and Lake Macquarie in the NPL before coming to Weston in 2020.

He was thankful for the messages of support from players and coaches from across the local football scene and especially the efforts of Weston in helping his family since the accident.

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