- Peter V’landys has apologised to wheelchair-bound Alex McKinnon
- Newcastle Knights backrower was left paralysed following 2014 tackle
Australian Rugby League Commission chairman Peter V’landys has issued a personal apology to paralysed footy star Alex McKinnon after learning that the ex-Newcastle player had been paying for tickets to NRL matches.
Last month, it was revealed that McKinnon – who was left paralysed by a horrific on-field accident in 2014 – had been paying for tickets to watch the Knights play at McDonald Jones Stadium for over a decade.
V’landys wasn’t impressed by the revelation and has acted swiftly to make things right, offering McKinnon free lifetime tickets to NRL matches and an apology.
McKinnon expressed his gratitude at the gesture from V’landys.
‘I’ve bought my own tickets for 10 years and it was never about that,’ he told News Corp.
‘I don’t want to be asking for stuff. I see myself as a fan and I enjoy it on the hill with my kids with general admission tickets.
NRL supremo Peter V’Landys (pictured) has offered Alex McKinnon an apology after discovering he had been paying for tickets to Knights matches
Alex McKinnon (pictured with partner Lily Malone and daughter Harriet) said being offered tickets for life was a very nice gesture
‘But I really appreciate Peter reaching out with the email offering the tickets for the rest of my life.
‘It’s not something I would have asked for but I’m really appreciative. It’s a very nice gesture.’
McKinnon, a father-of-three had faced an uncertain future 11 years ago after one of the most shocking incidents in Australian sporting history.
McKinnon fractured his C4 and C5 vertebrae in a horror tackle during that game against Melbourne in 2014.
He’d played 49 NRL games before tragedy struck – and as he later revealed, he knew as soon as he hit the ground that his life was about to change forever.
‘I knew straight away,’ he told ABC journalist Stan Grant in 2020.
‘I remember hearing the noise, I remember trying to move but not being able to, I remember players surrounding me and looking at me – clear conversations, I could hear everything.
‘I really just felt embarrassed … I suppose it takes you back to being a man and what your identity is there – strong, unflappable, unwavering – I just felt that it was embarrassing that I was laying there, unable to move, and I just felt like a real failure.’
The former Newcastle star was left paralysed during a horror tackle while playing against Melbourne Storm
McKinnon (pictured with Lily Malone) graduated last year with a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology from the University of Newcastle
Five days after the tackle, he woke up to a medical practitioner pricking him with a pin to determine where his paralysis began and classify the injury.
On the sixth day, doctors at The Alfred Hospital gave Mr McKinnon, his parents and then-girlfriend Teigan Power the devastating news that it was very unlikely he would ever walk again.
In his emotional biography, Unbroken, McKinnon wrote: ‘I began to yell and sob as tears streamed down my face.’
‘I’m f***ing over this,’ he yelled to his parents.
‘I don’t want to be here, this is making me sick to my stomach, why can’t I just die? Why can’t you just kill me? Why are you going to put me through this? How can you let me live like this? Is it just for you? I’m happy to die. I want this over.’
He would later split from wife Teigan Power in 2022, but has found love again with new partner Lily Malone.
The pair are understood to have started dating while the 33-year-old was studying at university.
McKinnon was working as head of recruitment with the Knights until January 2022, when he left the role in order to focus on his studies.
This article was originally published by a www.dailymail.co.uk . Read the Original article here. .