"YOU will never work and you will never walk again."

These were the chilling words Maidstone United manager Alan Walker was told as he lay paralysed in Belfast's Royal Victoria Hospital the day after a freak accident.

But just 10 weeks on, Mr Walker is learning to walk again with the help of experts based in Medway.

Mr Walker, 47, was taking part in an Irish FA A-licence coaching course when he went up to head a ball and ended up unconscious on the ground. A disc had popped out causing his spinal cord to be flattened.

Doctors later told him he was extremely lucky the cord had not been severed as this would probably have killed him.

He is now having daily physiotherapy sessions.

He said: "There is potential that I could recover really well and I am confident that I will."

* Full story in the Kent Messenger and Medway Messenger (Friday, August 17).