Melton is rallying around a young teammate after a horror injury

Melton is rallying around the family of a young teammate after a freak accident on Saturday left him in an induced coma and suffering severe injuries.

Melton defeated Darley on Saturday. Picture: Hamish Blair

Melton is rallying around the family of a young player after he suffered a serious neck injury on Saturday.

Dyson Stevens was injured in the first quarter of the Bloods’ BFL win over Darley and the game stopped for almost an hour as paramedics attended to him on the ground.

The talented young forward was hurt while laying a tackle, an incident coach Aaron Tymms described as a freak accident.

He was rushed to Royal Melbourne Hospital where he was placed in an induced coma.

It is understood Stevens seriously damaged his C4 vertebrae but importantly avoided major damage to his spinal cord.

“It’s a bit of a waiting game now and hopefully good things come from it,” Tymms said.

“I’ve looked at the footage and there was nothing in the tackle at all, there’s a million of those every game. It was just a freak accident.”

Melton played out the game unaware of their teammates situation, winning by 34-points to remain undefeated this season.

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The club now faces a match against East Point.

Tymms said the mood was understandably sombre at training on Tuesday.

“They said they wanted to keep playing but at that stage no one was of the opinion that this was the case, we thought he’d just knocked himself out,” he said.

“A few of the boys are doing it pretty tough so it will be interesting to see how they respond. I’m not expecting too much to be honest.”