FORMER PLAYERS | Helping hand for ex-Blue Neil Carroll

Chester FC Former Players Association has stepped in to help Neil Carroll, the ex Chester midfielder who suffered massive injuries after being robbed and abandoned by a taxi driver following a night out in Liverpool seven years ago.

Neil, now 31, was given only hours to live after falling more than 50 feet from a flyover. He pulled through but his life has changed beyond all recognition, unable to walk or talk and needing 24 hour care at his specially adapted home in Huyton.

President of Chester FPA Grenville Millington and chair Alan Tarbuck visited Neil and his mum Cathy this week and presented them with a cheque for £360 to pay for four specialist physiotherapy treatment sessions which will help him along the road towards improving his mobility.

Cathy said: ‘Neil has regular physio sessions which are making a big difference. He is gradually regaining a bit of sensation and his mobility on the left-hand side is improving. This treatment has to be paid for by ourselves and we are really grateful to Chester Former Players for their help. It also means a lot that Neil hasn’t been forgotten even though it is over ten years since he left Chester.’

Neil spent four years at the Liverpool FC Academy before joining Chester where he was a member of the first team squad in League Two in 2007-08.

Alan Tarbuck said: ‘Neil is a real fighter and we are only too pleased to be able to do something to support him. I’m only sorry that we can’t afford to do more but we will be keeping in touch with him and his family and hope that others may be able to chip in and help him make progress.’

An online fund-raising campaign was set up last month. Donations can be made at https://www.gofundme.com/f/neilsjourney.

This is the second donation that Chester FPA have made since Neil’s accident.