Hull City midfielder Ryan Mason has admitted that he considers himself fortunate to still be alive following his sickening clash of heads with Gary Cahill in January.
The Tigers' club-record signing required eight minutes of treatment on the pitch during the Premier League meeting, before undergoing surgery on a fractured skull at St Mary's Hospital in London.
Mason revealed earlier this week that he has no timescale on his return to the field, having only just made a fleeting visit to Hull's training ground, but right now he is simply grateful that the incident did not turn out worse than it did.
"It was pure relief that I was still here because it was serious," he told Sky Sports News. "It could have quite easily gone another way. I remember everything. I remember the doctor coming on, I remember having a conversation with him and the ambulance arrived. I wish I didn't to be honest. It wasn't a great 30 or 40 minutes. I don't see the need [to watch it back].
"I've dealt with it in a very good way and I'm positive about my recovery, but to sit there and look at the incident, I don't feel like I'd get any benefit from it. Sometimes you have a clash of heads and it feels a bit sore, but I remember the impact was huge. I was touching my head and it felt like it was pouring with blood, but I remember looking and there was nothing on my hand.
"For me that was a sign it was probably quite serious. As soon as the doc came on, the procedures he was going through did make me realise I was in a little bit of trouble. Thankfully the doc I had from Hull and the medical team were fantastic with me. Mark [Waller], the doctor, made some crucial decisions on the pitch and in the ambulance that did help me with my recovery.
"There were people that maybe wanted to go to a different hospital and get me scanned there, but he knew it was a fracture and how serious it was. We drove past two or three hospitals to get to this specific hospital because he knew I would be requiring surgery on my brain."
Mason featured 16 times in the league for Hull prior to his ongoing spell on the sidelines.
