An Aussie Rules player has been left paralysed from the waist down after suffering a horrific neck injury from a seemingly innocent collision during a game on the weekend.
Darwin Buffaloes' Tai Martin-Page dislocated a vertebrae in his neck and suffered damaged to his spinal cord after colliding with Wanderers defender Mitchell Taylor in a NTFL game.
The 27-year-old attempted to get up from the hit multiple times but gathering teammates and officials realised something was wrong when he couldn't feel his legs.
He was stretched off the pitch and immediately taken to a nearby hospital before being flown to Perth on Sunday to undergo surgery.
Martin-Page is now in ICU with limited movement in his arms and shoulders, facing a lengthy road to recovery.
"At the moment he cannot walk or perform any voluntary movement in his legs... Whether or not he will walk again, I can't, at this stage, determine," his surgeon, Dr Edward Baddour, told 9NEWS.
"I think there is some hope," he said.
On Facebook, Martin-Page said in a statement "unfortunately accidents like this occur".
"And next time I will zig instead of zagging... Good to hear the boys got over the line," he wrote.
The collision has gone on report for review.
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