In al coma from football at 15 - And a Bang on the Ear extract

Phil Quinlan was a promising 15-year-old athlete who packed his bags one Sunday morning in November 1989 to play a game of football.

A day later, his mother was told he had a 25% chance to live.

Part investigative tale, part time capsule, And a Bang on the Ear sees Phil painstakingly piece together the events that led up to, and followed, the accidental clash of heads that left him in a coma before waking up to 30 years of pain and paralysis.

Full of hope and humour, rage and rehabilitation, this is a deeply personal and inspiring story, shining a light on the issue of brain injury in sport.

An extract from chapter 6:

26 NOVEMBER 1989

FIVE HOURS AFTER THE INJURY

I remember getting ready for the cycle to the game, but my Dad said he'd drive me up instead. The fog was too bad to cycle in, he reckoned. So bad the game would probably be called off anyway. In fact, he was certain it would be when we arrived and the fog was much thicker in Kilberry than it had been in Navan.

The referee arrived and we lost our minds laughing at him. He pulled up on this old red-and-white Honda 50, wearing these big thick black wellies. Dad grabbed him and asked him if he was going to let us get home before the fog got even worse, but he shrugged him off and never bothered to answer him.

At points during the game, you couldn’t see more than fifteen metres or so ahead of you. You’d send a pass across the field and have no idea whether it got to one of our lads or one of theirs. Two minutes into the game, the Parkvilla keeper kicked the ball out and it just appeared out of the mist and landed between me and Gordon Mitchell. We looked at other with an expression that said, 'What the fuck?’ I passed the ball on, but to who, I’ve no clue.

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