Rugby player from West Sussex determined to recover after serious neck injury in France

James Lasis, 25, a former Brighton College student who plays for Stade Niçois, was seriously hurt when a scrum collapsed during a match against Rugby Club Narbonnais on April 25.

He has been in intensive care at Nice’s Hôpital Pasteur since then, having undergone emergency cervical surgery on his damaged spinal cord, and he is unable to move his arms and legs.

But James’s mother Judy, who saw the accident happen live on television, said the athlete has remained positive and is determined to recover.

“He hasn’t made an amazing recovery or anything, but he is working his way through,” said Judy, who is now staying in Nice with her husband Karl and eldest son Matthew.

“It’s slow progress but that’s what we knew was going to happen,” she said.

James’s neck is now stable after it was dislocated and he has had two operations on it, said Judy, adding that doctors have fitted a kind of cage around it.

“The spinal cord has been badly bruised and they call it an edema,” she said.

James cannot consciously move his arms or his legs, she said, but he can shrug his shoulders and is getting pins and needles down his arms, which is a good sign.

His legs will also twitch and James can sometimes feel his feet being tickled, Judy added.

“For us there’s been massive amounts of improvement because we know every little bit what’s gone on,” she said.