Ross Morrison's life drastically changed when he was paralysed in a rugby accident. vicki green-steel reports...

AT SCHOOL, rugby was Ross Morrison's favourite game. But eight years ago his life changed because of the sport he loved.

During an after-school training session at Portsmouth Grammar School, Ross was at the receiving end of a tackle and fell awkwardly.

His neck snapped, paralysing him below the arms and leaving him in a wheelchair for the rest of his life.

Undeterred by his disability, Ross did not want to give up the game he loved.

Now he is competing in the Paralympics in Athen as part of the Great Britain wheelchair rugby team.

Ross was 16 when the accident happened. He landed on his neck and crushed his spinal cord. He spent six months in the spinal injuries unit of Odstock Hospital in Salisbury.

"What happened was an accident," says Ross, who is 25 and lives in Fareham.

"I fell awkwardly during a tackle. It was a one-in-a-million thing, but if it happens it happens. You can't sit around and do nothing."

It was during his time in hospital that Ross found out about wheelchair rugby.

"I really enjoyed sport and I could not comprehend the idea of having to give it up," he says. "I guess I had no idea of what to expect when I came out of hospital and of how much I could and couldn't do."

Despite never being able to walk, he set out to see just how much he could achieve.

Nearly three years after the accident Ross gained the Duke of Edinburgh Gold Award, was studying biochemistry at Southampton University, and had started playing wheelchair rugby with the London Wheelchair Rugby Club.

"As soon as I tried out wheelchair rugby I knew it was the sport for me," he recalls. "There wasn't a club locally so I joined the club in London.

"In essence, wheelchair rugby bears very little correlation to actual rugby, except in terms of the level of violence involved.

"It's played indoors on a basketball court with four players from each team on court at any one time and uses a regular volleyball.

"The idea is to push through the goal at the other end of the court, carrying the ball.

"It's full contact, so although there's no actual body contact the chair contact is full on."

The wheelchair - or "chariot" as his mother calls it - that Ross uses is very different from a normal chair.

On the wheels are large metal plates (battered from being rammed by other wheelchairs) and around the front is a metal guard.

It's a savage-looking piece of equipment, but Ross is quick to assure that there are very few injuries from wheelchair rugby.

"You might occasionally hurt your finger or get a bruise nothing worse, " he says.

"Players are strapped into the chair so they can't fall out."

The ball has to be passed or bounced every ten seconds and it has to be carried between the goalposts to score.

After going to the 2000 Sydney Paralympics to watch the wheelchair rugby, Ross made the biggest decision of his life.

He decided to give up his university degree and train full-time as a professional wheelchair rugby player.

"I receive funding from UK Sport, which is a lottery- funded body, which enables me to train fulltime," he says.

"In 2001 I was picked for the European Championships in Liverpool but unfortunately the games were cancelled.

"Then I was picked for the World Championships in 2002 which was held in Gothenburg. We played against 11 other countries and Great Britain came fifth.

"In last year's European Championships we won and I was voted Man of the Match and received a trophy. It was a great honour."

When Ross made this year's Paralympic wheelchair rugby squad he was thrilled.

"I can't wait to get to Athens," he says. "Most of the teams that are playing are ones that we have already played - and have beaten.

"The only one we haven't beaten is the USA, but I'm feeling confident that we can win."

FACTFILE:

4,000 paralympic athletes from around 130 countries will be competing in the Paralympics in Athens.

Competitors will be taking part in the follow events: archery, athletics, boccia, cycling, equestrian, fencing, football, goalball, judo, powerlifting, sailing, shooting, standing volleyball, swimming, table tennis, tennis, wheelchair basketball, wheelchair rugby.

The games are on until September 28.