Bath City striker Alex Fletcher returned to action after ten months out of the game recovering from a serious head injury that he sustained last year.
The 24-year-old suffered the injury following a collision with advertising hoardings during a National League South game between Bath and Dulwich Hamlet last November. The game was later abandoned.
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On Saturday, Fletcher was subbed on in the 85th minute of his side’s 3-1 victory over Hampton and Richmond Borough at Twerton Park.
Speaking to The Athletic during his recovery, Fletcher said his family had been told he “might not make it” as he underwent emergency brain surgery.
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Fletcher: ‘The surgeon said I might not make it’
From the Athletic’s Stu James’
In an exclusive interview with The Athletic, Fletcher described his emotions during his recovery period, detailing how tough a period he and his family endured.
He said: “I was in theatre maybe for four or five hours, and then the surgeon came out and had to deliver the news to Ellie (his fiancee) and my family that I might not make it through the aftermath of that surgery,” Fletcher says. “And then, even if I did, there would be a slim chance that I would be the same person as before.
“Because of the place on my brain where I had the injury, there are different things that can go wrong. It controls movement, speech, hearing, eyesight, personality, regulates body temperature — everything that we do as normal people is controlled by the area of the brain that was impacted for me. So that news, when it was delivered to you, was…”
GO DEEPER
The footballer who almost died crossing a ball: 'The surgeon said I might not make it'
(Photo: Getty Images)
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