ELGIN City manager Ross Jack has praised the support given to a young footballer critically hurt in an A96 road smash.
Chris Tucker has been responding to treatment in Aberdeen Royal Infirmary after sustaining multiple injuries when a car transporting him home from a match was involved in an accident.
Elgin dedicated Saturday’s 2-0 win over Peterhead to their injured under-21 player, with their manager revealing positive news on Mr Tucker’s condition to his players just before the game.
Mr Jack also hailed the messages of support given to the club from across the country. He said the Elgin fans had been "tremendous" in offering their best wishes to the young footballer, who suffered head and pelvic injuries and broke both his legs in Wednesday’s crash near Alves.
"I told the boys just minutes before kick off that I got a text from (Chris Tucker’s) dad to say that he had a flicker of the eye, lifted his arm a little bit, and moved a finger," Mr Jack said. "So it was a positive response.
"But there’s a heck of a long way to go. He’s been through an unbelievable amount of surgery so it’s just little baby steps at a time.
"They are monitoring everything but there’s a number of issues going on in his body that they need to look at and it’s just a question of how strong he is to tackle the next one.
"Although he’s fought through the last couple of days he’s far from out of a critical condition. But the signs are he’s responsive, which is fantastic."
Mr Tucker (21) was a front seat passenger in a black Vauxhall Corsa driven by one of his team-mates which went off the road on a straight section of the A96 west of Alves and struck a tree. A silver Corsa with three other Elgin City players was also involved in the accident, which took place at around 10.15 on Wednesday night.
Mr Tucker was transferred to ARI’s intensive care unit, where he remains at present. The black Corsa’s two other occupants, Darryl McHardy and Connor Macaulay, were not seriously hurt while Aaron Hamilton, Stewart Black and Ceiran McLean, who were travelling in the other car, escaped with minor injuries.
Mr Jack said a "massive thank you" was due to emergency services who attended the accident, and said medical staff both in Elgin and Aberdeen had been fantastic in the way they treated the young players."
More on this story in Friday’s Northern Scot.
