Cumbernauld dad 'lucky to be alive' after clash on football pitch leaves him with horror injuries
A Cumbernauld dad has said he is lucky to be alive after a freak accident while playing football left him with severe injuries.
Jordan Spiers was left with lacerations to his spleen and kidney, and three fractured ribs after colliding with another player on Sunday, November 3. The Daily Record reports that the 30-year-old goalkeeper was later rushed back to hospital with a blood clot in his bladder.
He was playing for Carron Huskies as they faced Corstorphine Dynamo in Edinburgh as part of a league designed to help overweight men get back into playing football. He said: "It was an absolute freak accident.
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"The player was running at me while I was running to collect the ball. I felt the full weight of his knee go into my side when we clashed.
"I was lying on the ground and thought I'd broken my back. Eventually I stood up and my stomach felt like a bag of coins in it, everything was just falling about.
"I could actually feel my ribs clattering off each other."
Jordan was helped off of the pitch by a first aider who tried to call an ambulance to the Edinburgh pitch. His brother Chris then rushed him to A&E at Forth Valley hospital.
Jordan continued: "I was sitting in the changing room and had no idea how serious it was. We play in a league to help overweight men get back fit and playing football. The player running at me is an absolute unit and I’m an absolute unit so accidents happen.
"On the way to the hospital the pain suddenly became unbearable. I’ve had kidney problems in the past and I just knew it was my kidney."
Doctors said to Jordan that he was lucky to pull through after scans showed he had serious lacerations to his spleen and kidney. He also fractured three ribs which had pierced his organs.
"It’s a miracle I never needed any surgery. It was a grade 2 laceration to my spleen and a grade 3 to my kidney," he explained.
“I’d suffered five fractures across three ribs in total and they pierced through my organs. The doctors said I was lucky I didn't need any surgery and any more force could have been fatal.
"You'd have thought I was in a car crash."
Jordan was discharged on November 7, but his ordeal wasn't over and he was rushed back to hospital with a blood clot that developed in his bladder. His 34-year-old partner Sarah, who is eight months pregnant with their second child, says their nine-year-old daughter Kayla had begged him not to play again.
Jordan added: "I was lucky I didn't die - twice. The blood clot never travelled beyond my bladder. It’s frightening to think I could have died just playing a game of football. I think I might have to hang my boots up for good now.”
Jordan's team mates have organised a fundraiser to help support his family financially while he remains off work in the run up to Christmas.
You can donate Jordan's Go Fund Me here.
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