Dylan Beattie was playing for Glasgow North United on Sunday when he jumped up for a header. He was knocked unconscious and hit the floor when he came down hard
A young dad is fighting for his life in hospital with a head injury after a sickening clash of heads during a football match.
Dylan Beattie was playing for Glasgow North United against Hillwood on Sunday when he jumped up for a header, when an opposition player’s head smashed into his face mid-air, knocking him unconscious as he crashed to the ground. Medics fought to stabilise the landscape gardener after the accident and then rushed him to the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital.
The 25-year-old footballer was placed into an induced coma to help him recover from swelling and a bleed on his brain. His partner Megan O’Donnell, 23 spoke to the DailyRecord about her unbearable fear as doctors warn he may not recover.
Megan said: “He was instantly knocked out and his full body went stiff as he was falling to the ground before getting a second bang to the head when he landed. He’s currently in the ICU with a bleed in the brain and some swelling. He is in an induced coma and has not woken up yet, despite the doctors trying. The doctors don’t know what is going to happen and whether or not he will be left with a disability. It’s a long process and might take him weeks, months or years to recover.”
Megan, who is mum to Dylan’s 14-month-old son Taio, added that health care staff have laid out three harrowing possibilities; either Dylan will wake up with memory loss, may be left unable to walk or do basic tasks for at least six months, or could suffer a permanent mental disability.
She added: “It is the complete unknown right now that is terrifying. We won’t know much this has affected Dylan until he wakes up. It has been such a shock. Taio keeps saying ‘Dada’ in the mornings because he can see that Dylan is not there in the bed. We are trying to keep everything as normal as possible for him but it scares me to think that Dylan might wake up and not remember our son or our happy memories together as a family.”
Best friend and teammate Brandon Imran, 27, was playing alongside Dylan when the horror incident unfolded. He said: “We have been best mates for years. We played centre back together that day. He doesn’t usually play that position and although he’s 6ft 1, he never usually jumps to head the ball. With 10 minutes to go, we were 5-2 up and he jumped up and was knocked-out mid-air. He turned sideways in the air and came down and smacked his head off the ground.
“It was chaos after that, but everyone, including the opposition and referee, did really well to act quickly to help him. I’ve spent most of the last two days with him in the hospital and has been brutal to see him that way. He is such a loud and proud guy, so to see him in a coma doesn’t feel real. I have a baby due in the next week too and it’s really tough to think that Dylan may not be awake for it.”
Brandon has since set up a GoFundMe page to support his pal’s family while he continues to receive intensive care. Megan added: “The fundraiser is something that I didn’t want to accept at first, but if he wakes up then that money will be used to cover his bills until he can go to work. However, if he doesn’t wake up, then it would go towards covering his funeral.”
