Everton's Shane Duffy suffers freak injury on RoI duty

[Skyline]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/8699813.stm

Republic of Ireland centre-back Shane Duffy has admitted he thought he was going to die after suffering a freak training ground injury on Friday.

The 18-year-old Everton player, who had life-saving surgery after lacerating his liver, lost 3.6 litres of blood, around two-thirds of his supply.

However, he has made good progress and moved out of intensive care on Sunday.

"Shane was very frightened. He thought he was going to die," said the Republic's team doctor Alan Byrne.

"There was 3.6 litres of blood in his abdomen that had leaked from an artery, and he had received over 20 units of blood.

"You are pouring it in one way and it is leaking out the other way.

"All you can do at that stage is put as much fluid in as you can because you are trying to keep the circulation going to the brain and to the heart."

Dr Byrne said he knew within seconds of attending Duffy, who had collided with Irish amateur team goalkeeper Adrian Walsh, that he was dealing with a serious injury.

"I wasn't quite sure of the nature of it. He was in so much pain and I needed to know where that pain was.

"After a while, he was able to say it was near his lower breastbone, so what you think is the worst case scenario - the sac that covers your heart is behind there and you can bleed into that from a trauma, collapse your lungs, break your sternum."

However, Duffy has made rapid progress since Friday.

"The news has been good, a lot has changed in 36 hours," said Dr Byrne.

"On Friday night, we weren't talking about football, we were talking about would this young boy survive, would he live?"

Everton chairman Bill Kenwright and manager David Moyes have been in close contact, and dispatched their own medical staff to Dublin on Saturday

Republic assistant boss Marco Tardelli said: "We are very happy now we know his condition. It was very emotional when I met his father because I have a son the same age as Shane."

[Row Z Royal]

Christ. It's the sort of thing that a) you hope never happens and b) if it does, that it happens to someone else.

Scary.

[exileinleeds]

Dreadful accident, hope he can make a full recovery.

[leww_rfc]

Thats a horrible accident, All the best, Hope he recovers quickly and well!

[Zammo]

Everton chairman Bill Kenwright and manager David Moyes have been in close contact, and dispatched their own medical staff to Dublin on Saturday

Yeah, a wet sponge will do it