Nasty knee injury fails to keep fan from big game

COLIN SMITH/ The Nelson Mail

ALL'S WELL: Soccer stalwart Warwick Heal in Nelson Hospital today after injuring his leg while in Wellington for the All Whites v Bahrain game at the weekend.

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Nothing was going to stop longtime soccer stalwart Warwick Heal from seeing the All Whites' historic victory at the weekend – not even a ruptured cruciate ligament on the morning of the game.

Mr Heal, who lives in Golden Bay and was chairman of Nelson United for almost a decade, went to Wellington on Saturday to see the World Cup qualifier between the All Whites and Bahrain but had some time to kill before kickoff.

He decided to go the cinema to watch The Damned United, a portrayal of former Leeds United manager Brian Clough. Mr Heal went to get a coffee, fell over a step and ruptured the cruciate ligament in his knee. "That's the injury that has ended the careers of so many soccer players and now it's me. I have to contact [Manchester United manager] Sir Alex [Ferguson] and tell him I'm not available for selection."

However, that was not going to stop him. After seeing an orthopaedic specialist at Wellington Hospital, he phoned around his friends to organise a wheelchair.

Then sports writer for The Press newspaper Tony Smith got Mr Heal into a corporate box sitting alongside Martin Crowe and Stephen Fleming.

"It was the most fabulous event I have been to. The football was amazing, but the crowd was wonderful. I had never seen anything like it."

Come fulltime, he celebrated like everyone else, "but I couldn't stand up and throw beer over everybody."

His wife, Kate, said he was initially quite philosophical about the possibility of missing the game, but nothing was going to stop him. "He ended up having a wonderful weekend. Just a shame about being in hospital as a result."

Mr Heal said he knew All Whites coach Ricki Herbert from when he played for Nelson United in the 1970s, and wished him all the best for the World Cup in Cape Town next year. But with surgery due tomorrow afternoon, he said he might not be able to join him. "South Africa is a bit of a long haul."