Rugby player recovers from neck injury after rival team prays for him

DAN McIntyre is not a very religious person but he has come to appreciate the power of prayer after a frightening incident while playing rugby.

Collaroy Cougars rugby player contemplates how lucky he is after suffering a neck injury. Picture: Adam Ward.

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DAN McIntyre is not a very religious person but he has come to appreciate the power of prayer after a frightening incident while playing rugby with the Collaroy Cougars last weekend.

In the game against the Macarthur Crusaders at Griffith Park last Saturday ended up sitting on the ground after making a tackle.

“As I was trying to roll away a big fella from the other team came down on my head and my chin hit my chest,” McIntyre said. “Then I heard a crack.”

As he lay on the ground waiting for the ambulance to arrive, McIntyre started to feel tingles in his arms.

“I guess I started to panic a lot, I didn’t know what was going to happen or what the outcome would be,” he said.

Dan McIntyre in Mona Vale Hospital after he hurt his neck.

Then the big Samoans gathered around him in a huddle.

“I wondered ‘what the hell is going on’, and they said they were going to say a prayer for me,” McIntyre said.

“They linked up shoulder to shoulder and one person spoke.

“After that every one of them came up and tapped me on the leg and said ‘good luck’.”

The heartfelt gesture gave 23-year-old McIntyre a real lift in a very traumatic time.

“I didn’t know how to take it, but all I could say was ‘thank you it means a lot’,” he said.

The ambulance transported McIntyre to the emergency ward at Mona Vale Hospital where he had X-rays straight away and the doctor tested his responsiveness from head to toe.

“It all came back clear which was the most astonishing thing about it,” McIntyre said.

After initially fearing the worst he walked out of hospital at 8pm that night and returned to his work in property management on Wednesday, still grateful for the actions of the Macarthur players.

Collaroy Rugby Player Dan McIntyre is back at work after his rugby injury. Picture: Adam Ward.

“I’d like to thank them all,” he said. “All the prayers helped I guess.

“I am gobsmacked, I realise how lucky I was.”

Macarthur captain Tau Vaifale said his team sings a traditional hymn before says a prayer before every game.

“When we saw the bloke on the ground he was in bad shape so I gathered the boys and we stood around in a circle, linked our arms together and said a little prayer for him,” Vaifale said.

“In the heat of the moment you go out there and bash each other and try and put it on each other but at the end of the day they are brothers to us.”

And Vaifale believes that moment may have helped McIntyre.

“We are really strong in our belief and our faith, we definitely that it had something to do with it,” he said.