‘They said I wouldn’t play again...but I never gave up’ OPENING CEREMONY WEDNESDAY 9PM, C4
EX-RED IN GB TEAM
A FOOTBALLER who feared he would never play again after a crash left him fighting for life will star for the GB Paralympic team.
Sean Highdale was tipped for the top at Liverpool’s youth academy and had been capped by England U16s when tragedy struck.
He was 17 when he was hurled through a car windscreen in a 100mph smash in which two friends died.
His knees were smashed, his ankle broken, a disc in his neck was shattered and he lost a kidney in the 2008 accident.
Doctors warned that he would never play again and his dream of being a footballer was over.
But the Scouser, now 25, has battled back to fitness after a series of operations and is once again eyeing glory on the pitch.
He has been picked to play for GB’s Cerebral Palsy team in Rio and can’t wait to represent his country.
Sean, a midfielder, said: “I am a grade eight for my disability. I wasn’t born with it, I was involved in a car crash. I had a bleed on the brain.
“I was 17 when it happened and was playing for Liverpool Football Club and just turned professional. I was doing well and playing for England.
“It was heart-breaking to think I had got to a high level and then it was going to be taken away from me. However, you live with it and you have to get on with it.”
Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard helped resurrect the stricken lad’s dream of playing football again.
Sean said: “Steven phoned me up in hospital to tell me to come to Melwood training ground.
“I had lunch with him and he gave me some real words of encouragement.
“So did Jamie Carragher, who came to see me. It was a massive inspiration.”
He added: “Not once did I think of giving up. What happened was devastating. But it has inspired me to be the best I can. I will never take what I’ve got for granted.”
Sean was being driven home with his pals Kalam James and Thomas Benn when their car veered off the road and hit a tree in Liverpool.
Kalam and boxer Thomas, both 17, were killed.
Sean said: “I’d seen two of my mates die and that just devastated me. Then the news I might not play again hit hard.
“But I thought, ‘Something good has got to come out of this.’ I was determined to make that happen.”
Sean said it was a challenge moving from mainstream football into disability football but he is adapting. He added: “Seeing all the lads and the quality that we have in this team, then we are only destined for good things.”