EFL 2019: The Basin footballer Mitch Rule continuing recovery from on-field bump

The Basin footballer Mitch Rule has recalled the frightening on-field bump that broke his neck, revealing how close he was to ending up in a wheelchair. And although he is lucky not to be a quadriplegic, his life is on hold while he recovers.

The Basin footballer Mitch Rule is counting his blessings that he won’t be spending the rest of his days in a wheelchair after a frightening on-field bump.

Rule remains in good spirits but will spend the next three months in a neck brace after suffering a broken neck last month, narrowly avoiding becoming a quadriplegic.

He was left with a fractured C6 when he was bumped by Ringwood’s Mitch Jackson in the Eastern Football League Division 2 clash on April 27.

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The 25-year-old is off work indefinitely and his teaching degree has been put on hold.

Rule is also unable to drive while he’s in the neck brace and he is unsure if he will play football again.

“Obviously I won’t be playing again for the rest of this year,” Rule said.

“It puts a lot of things into perspective an injury like this and it makes you think how lucky you are and how much other stuff I’ve got going on in my life that I want to be able to do.

“I really don’t know (if I’ll play again), I haven’t made my mind up.”

Rule said he was lucky to not to be left a quadriplegic.

Mitch has little memory of the incident.

“My C6 vertebrae is fractured but it is not displaced — it’s like a hairline fracture. If it actually had have been displaced, that’s when you can be in serious trouble,” he said.
“I don’t know how close I was to that happening but I know if that was to happen it would have been much worse.”

Mitch collects the ball for The Basin. Picture: Davis Harrigan

Rule walked from the ground with the assistance of trainers, unaware of the seriousness of the injury.

He was taken to Maroondah Hospital and later transferred to St Vincent’s.

“We just treated it as a concussion. We had no idea it was going to be my neck,” he said.

“We were driving to the hospital and it started to hurt and that’s when I started to come to.

“Dad was driving and I was holding my chin up so my neck didn’t move too much.

“That’s when I started to think — I didn’t think it was broken at that stage — I just thought I’ve hurt myself here and I need to be careful.”

Rule praised The Basin’s trainers for assisting him through the incident.

“I sent a lot of them messages to thank them … they had no idea that it could have been a neck thing, they were just listening to what I was telling them,” he said.

“I told them I was fine to walk off. It is good where we can have an incident like this and I’m OK and we can raise awareness to know anytime a player is concussed that we need to get them in a neck brace and treat it as high precaution.

Mitch was unaware he had broken his neck following the bump. Picture: Davis Harrigan

“I certainly don’t blame the trainers for what they did.”

Rule has little memory of the incident.

“I remember bending over to pick up the ball and seeing a player coming and then it’s all sort of a blur,” he said.

“I remember the trainers talking to me and I remember sitting on the bench but I don’t remember what was going on in the game.

“I remember being in the rooms and I remember getting in the car to go to the hospital.”

A GoFundMe page has since raised over $10,000 to help cover his medical costs.

Opposition clubs have donated to the page, and Ringwood’s committee and players have also reached out to him.

“It’s been overwhelming, I can’t believe how much has been put into it (the fundraising page),” he said.

“It’s nice to know the whole league is getting around me.”

The Basin is appealing the six-week suspension handed to Jackson for the bump, with the matter to be heard by the Eastern Football League tribunal tonight.

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