Football coach home after crash

The family of a football coach who was injured in a bus crash in Malta expressed relief yesterday that he is back home in Aberdeen – as they anxiously await the results of a brain scan.

Simon Morrison, 42, was flown by air ambulance to Aberdeen Airport on Saturday and then transferred to intensive care at the city’s Royal Infirmary.

The all-clear was given for him to be returned to Scotland despite still being in an induced coma.

His 60-year-old mother Ellen Grant had been unable to make the journey to sit at her son’s bedside due to health problems and said it was “amazing” to have him “just down the road”.

Mr Morrison had been on a family holiday with his sister Suzanne Henderson, 39, her husband Michael, 44 and their two children Kelsey, 15 and Kieran, 18.

The group had enjoyed a day of sightseeing and were on board an open-topped tourist bus when it crashed into a tree two weeks ago, killing two tourists sitting directly behind Mr Morrison.

Mr Henderson said they “still have no memory” of how it actually happened, adding: “It’s a miracle Simon is still alive – we didn’t think he was going to make it.”

Mr Morrison’s niece Kelsey Henderson immediately jumped to the aid of her uncle and helped keep him upright as blood poured out of his mouth following the collision.

“She wouldn’t leave him,” said her father. “The two of them get on really well and she kept talking to him. Simon had been knocked out cold, but he came round before the ambulance came – she saved his life.

“I went downstairs off the bus to follow Suzie and Kieran – all I can remember is seeing Simon’s head wide open and all the blood.”

Mr Morrison had recently recovered from a stroke and had returned to Middlefield Wasps to coach one of the youth teams.

The club started a fundraiser online for the family and so far have reached the halfway point of a £3,000 target.

Simon Morrison is now in Aberdeen Royal Infirmary