'As I got to the hospital, they were reading out the clearance form. I knew it was pretty serious then' Max Evans on his brother Thom's injury

Published on Friday 26 February 2010 23:26

LIKE all professional rugby players, Max Evans is no stranger to injury. He took two years out of the game from 2004 while undergoing rehabilitation on a back injury, and at 26 has seen scores of other players stretchered off the field of play.

• Thom Evans and Max Evans

He was therefore not immediately concerned when his younger brother Thom went down hurt during the first half of Scotland's match against Wales a fortnight ago. A number of medical staff were involved in treating Thom before he was carried off, but Max had become familiar with the need for painstaking precaution whenever there was a risk of back damage.

Even at half-time, with Scotland in the lead and Thom on his way to hospital, Max was told nothing to make him unduly worried. Only after the match, when he went straight from the Millennium Stadium to the hospital and saw Thom being wheeled into the operating theatre, did he begin to come to terms with the fact that his brother's life had been in danger, and that his career as a rugby player had a very large question mark hanging over it.

Two weeks on, Max is with the Scotland squad in Rome, preparing for the team's third RBS Six Nations Championship match against Italy, while Thom is back home in Glasgow. Thom is up on his feet now, but still a long way back from normal health, never mind being able to contemplate a return to rugby.

Speaking at Murrayfield earlier this week, Max expressed his hope that Thom would be able to play again, but also said that if the decision were left up to him, there would be no return. "I can't say – I would like to think so, but at the same time I know the ins and outs of what has happened to his neck," he began when asked if he thought Thom would be capable of resuming his career with Glasgow Warriors and Scotland.

"Put it this way: it will be a while before it is even considered. That is all I can say. If I was saying, I wouldn't like him to play, but it is up to him."

"That is my thought right now, just because of what he has been through. I know what he is capable on a rugby pitch. I just know the ins and outs of what has been said.

"I will stick to what I said: it will be a long time before it is even considered. That goes back to him just taking one step at a time."

Max was a substitute in the Wales game, and at one time was on the field at the same time as his brother. With Sean and Rory Lamont also in the team, for a brief spell Scotland had two sets of brothers playing together in the back division for the first time ever.

It will be some time before there is even a chance of those four individuals being in the same side again, and for Max such questions are at most of secondary interest. Having expressed his own fears about Thom returning to action, he stressed that the medical staff had advised that the real issue at present was simply the steady return to ordinary fitness.

"All that has been said is to take one day at a time. My knowledge originally of what happened is that other guys have had similar injuries with discs and stuff like that and have come back playing.

"But the news about his is that it is a bit more severe than that, and not to think about playing rugby, but just to get fit. They are not saying anything about not coming back to rugby, or coming back to rugby, but just to take one day at a time.

"At one point it was worried he wouldn't have movement in his hands and feet. He has got that and he is walking, but we will just take one day at a time."

The story of the past 14 days has been one of gradual improvement – a graphic contrast to the frightening picture which steadily became clear to Max on the day of the game. "At half-time I knew he had been concussed and there might be something to do with his neck, but it was very vague," he recalled.

"We (Scotland] were in a good position and I was really focused on the game. It wasn't made out to me like it was anything major, so I didn't think much of it. I just thought the best.

"When you see all these people around him (on the pitch], you have seen people going through head injuries before and they go through those precautions all the time. That's how they've saved Thommy. It was pretty vague then, so I only knew after the game the severity of it.

"I got my stuff together as quickly as possible and went straight to the hospital. Obviously you don't know anything until you see it first hand. I saw him as he went into the operating theatre. He was very frightened.

"As I got there they were reading out the clearance form, the waiver, whatever, so I knew it was pretty serious then. But that was the first time I knew the severity."

Spectators as well as players know that the manner in which the injured are carried off the pitch is usually just a precaution, and that more often that not a check-up reveals no serious damage. In Thom's case, however, the care on the pitch from the medical staff of both teams was vital, as the Scottish Rugby Union's doctor, James Robson, explained to Max.

"I've seen it before," he said, emphasising why he was not initially too worried as he saw his brother being treated. "I was in the stands when I watched Thom against Edinburgh when he got a bad head knock when he collided with Bernardo Stortoni.

"He was on the pitch a bit then and that was just concussion. As I said, they really take their time because of like it has turned out with Thom.

"James has told if he'd been moved a millimetre it could have been fatal or he could have been paralysed. These are the precautions they go through and they can take all the time they need. Sometimes, like with Thom, it's one in a thousand, it can happen.

"More likely it's just a concussion or something like that, but they still go through the same procedure. On the pitch when I saw it I was upset and concerned that Thommy was concussed and probably going to go off. He was looking really sharp up until that point."

Max's immediate anxiety was assuaged once he learned Thom's condition was stable, but the past fortnight has still been a difficult time for him. "Last week was quite tough as I felt quite helpless. At the same time I was in contact with him and knew the team he had (in the hospital] in Cardiff was exceptional.

"As his condition has got a lot better it has made me feel a bit better. I've spoken to him recently and he's been great on the phone. He was over the moon when he took his first few steps down the corridor and he was joking and stuff, so it was great. Things have got better and better.

"They started off standing him up. He was obviously very dizzy having been lying down for almost a week. One day he was just standing up for just a matter of minutes. The next day he started doing some paces. It is all gradual and I have said to people we have to be patient.

"He knows that. He has a lot of spinal physiotherapy to do. Even though with this new op that recovery will be quicker and he will be able to go home. To begin with he was going to the Southern General Hospital for a bit. Now they say he can come straight home, and just go back and forth to the hospital. It will take time, but it was a major operation, and a major injury. It is expected."

Although his present tendency is to advise his brother against playing again, Max does not blame either rugby in general, or the Welsh players who tackled Thom in particular, for the injury. "How many guys do you see running flat out into contact? James Robson has been amazing and has been very close to me.

"He has told me it is the worst injury he has ever been involved in, and that from a man who has been involved in several Lions tours and Scotland tours. To say that shows that he was very unlucky.

"I watched it back. I expected to see something you could not watch. It wasn't. It did not look that bad. He has just gone head-on in.

"It's just the speed he runs into contact and (Wales full-back] Lee Byrne running in hard as well. The game has got a lot more physical and guys are conditioned for these sort of injuries not to happen.

"That is why we spend so long in the gym and do all the exercises. All the rehab on areas like the neck, the knees. I think it was just one of those things. There was no malice in there. You can see the way the Wales players came into the tackle.

"As (sports psychologist] Richard Cox said, Thom will face lots of emotions. He will have the moment of anger, and 'Why me?'

"He will come round. It is all part of the therapy. I am sure it happens to everyone. As I said Thom is in good spirits now and over the moon that he has got paces and gets confidence day by day."

It was inevitable that Max should ask himself if it was worthwhile or desirable to carry on playing rugby, but in a sense he had come up with the answer four years ago after undergoing rehab on his own back injury while making a living as a golfer in Portugal. "You have to think about it when your brother has been close to a fatality almost.

"One of the reasons why I came back to the sport, after being out in Portugal, is because I love it so much. Getting to this level, playing for Scotland, all you want to do is play for your country and there's not really anything I want to do until I can't do it physically anymore. No. It (giving up] was in my thought for maybe a second."

Indeed, a week after the Wales international, Max was back playing for Glasgow. "When Andy (Robinson, Scotland coach] asked would I be all right playing for Glasgow my first thought was yeah, because that is what I do, that is what I love doing.

"At the same time I knew that if I was injured I would want Thom to be playing and destroying teams as well, because that would make me happy to know he was doing that. I knew that was the case.

"I have to say going into my first tackle against Cardiff I was a tinsy bit apprehensive. I suppose that's understandable. The decision to play was pretty immediate."