A top young rugby player may never walk again after he suffered a horror injury during a high-school first XV match last month.
The Thames community has rallied around High School student Keenan Alexander, 17, who suffered a serious spinal injury on August 6 while playing against Paeroa College and now faces the prospect of not being able to ever run onto the field again due to dislocating a vertebrae in his spine.
Thames Valley High School are calling on the local community to get behind fundraising efforts to support Alexander who was immediately airlifted to Middlemore Hospital following the incident.
"Our understanding is Keenan will be in Middlemore for another week before being transferred to the Auckland Spinal Rehabilitation Unit for two to three months of rehabilitation," Thames Valley High School Principal Dave Sim told the NZ Rugby Foundation.
"Keenan is a wonderful, strong and determined young man and the school is right behind him and his family as he prepares for intensive rehabilitation."