Ricardo Lockette of the Seattle Seahwaks revealed that an injury he suffered on the field during an NFL game was life threatening.
Lockette was wiped out by a blindside hit from Jeff Heath of the Dallas Cowboys on a punt return when the two teams met in November of 2015, and he has since revealed how close he came to dying as a result.
Speaking at Redmond Fire Station 11 in Washington last week, Lockette thanked the paramedics who treated him after his injury.
Still wearing a neck brace, he stated that doctors told him the muscles and ligaments in his neck had been torn as a result of the impact, leaving him seriously injured.
"If I were to have stood up then," said Lockette "the weight of my head, left, right, front, back, I would have died. If one of my teammates would have came over and pulled my arm, just barely, I might have died. If the returner at the time would have broken a couple tackles, and they would have moved and fell on me, I would have died on the field. But what saved my life was the trainers".
Image: Elaine Thompson / AP/Press Association Images
He added that the trainers and the medical team did everything "perfectly by the book", and saved his life as a result.
Lockette underwent surgery at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas to stabilise his neck, and stated that "if they had gone too far to the left or moved me without stabilizing this or that, then I would have been dead. So I thank God that I'm here and thank you guys for the work that you do and if there is anything I can do to help you save another life, me, my teammates, my family are your workers".
The Seattle Seahawks special teams player has yet to return to football, but AP report that he hopes to return next season and make the Pro Bowl in 2016.
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