THE sport he loves has dealt a cruel blow to Mickey Reynolds but the 25 year-old motocross rider and rugby player has a positive outlook on his future.

The Leigh man, who has represented Great Britain at the daredevil off-road sport, is in the Northwest Regional Spinal Injuries Centre at Southport General Hospital after a race crash left him paralysed from the chest down.

“I’m planning for the worst but hoping for the best,” said Mickey, speaking from his hospital bed.

“It was just one of those freak accidents. I was trying to pass everyone as fast as I could in the first race but the front end of my 350 KTM dug in and I landed on my chest but my legs carried on.

"I’ve got up from a lot worse crashes, but this time I felt my back break and when I tried to get up I couldn’t move my legs.”

His dad Mick was at the race meeting when the accident happened.

“I was with him at the trackside before he was airlifted to Aintree Hospital and he told me he couldn’t feel his legs. He went into intensive care and they operated inserting two rods in his spine but there was damage to his spinal cord.

“He’s doing as well as can be expected and is definitely not short of mates".

Former Leigh East amateur rugby league player Mickey, who is proud of his two Shaw Cup winners’ trophies, has been involved with the club since he was eight years old. But he took up schoolboy motocross as a 12 year-old and concentrated on the two wheel sport which saw him represent Great Britain.

East stalwart and former Salford player Keith Latham, who coached Mickey at East, described him as “one of the nicest people you could meet and an absolutely great defensive player”.

Mickey’s many friends have been constant visitors to his hospital bedside.

His dad and mum, Denise, have visited him every day since the accident at Norley, near Frodsham on July 14.

Mickey, who has sisters Caroline, aged 27, and Collette, 23, said: "I just want to thank everyone for all the support, I'm absolutely overwhelmed! I’ll be ok no matter what the outcome.”

*On Bank Holiday Monday, August 26, fellow sportsmen will stage a rugby match between Tyldesley RUFC and a select Leigh East/Leigh Miners ARLFC side with admission proceeds to the Mickey Reynolds Fund. Kick-off time is 2pm at Tyldesley’s St George’s Park ground Astley and one half of the game will be held under rugby league rules and the other half under the union code.