An aspiring rugby star who broke his neck during a match is facing a long battle to recovery after doctors warned he may never walk again.
Nathan Cubitt, from Silsden, suffered severe neck injuries during a scrum while playing for Keighley Crusaders Rugby Union Club against the Bradford and Bingley Bees in November.
The 16-year-old underwent spinal surgery at Leeds General Infirmary and is currently being treated at Pinderfields Hospital in Wakefield.
Nathan, who had been training to be a mechanic in Keighley before the accident, has no feeling below his armpits and still has no fine motor movement in his arms.
Doctors have warned the sports star, whose plight attracted interest from around the world including a message of support from England rugby legend Jonny Wilkinson, that he may never walk again.
His devastated mum Susan said: “We are just taking every day as it comes now. I think he has got a long road to go down so I am not pushing it. He will stay in hospital for as long as it takes.
"He is working on his arms so that he can self-propel a wheelchair at some point in the future, which will be fantastic.
“He got a new wheelchair last week and he doesn’t need a head support there anymore, which is a bonus.
“The doctors are not going to give us false hope. He is working really hard with the physiotherapist to get back what he can, but I think anything he does get back now is a bonus. He is mad about his sport and would love to play a game of rugby again, but I don’t think that will ever happen.”
Susan said she was amazed at how well Nathan was coping with the situation.
“He is inspirational,” she said. “His whole attitude is fantastic. He has got a really wicked sense of humour and he is a cracking lad. He is such a remarkable young man and he is keeping us strong with how he has been coping.”
The former South Craven School pupil is able to use an adapted computer from his hospital bed and has more than 4,100 followers on Twitter, who tweet messages of support to him every day. His friends and Keighley Crusaders team mates visit him frequently and his parents are at his bedside every day.
Susan said: “On his Twitter account he has got a lot of rugby clubs following him and he is tweeting and getting involved as much as he can. He reads everything people send and he loves it. I want to thank everyone for the support they have been giving to Nathan. Keep it coming, it is keeping his spirits up.
“He knows that everybody in the rugby community is behind him and I think that is what he needs at the moment.”
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