![Ex-Rooster Mervyn Powell is yet to lace up again after sustaining a horror rugby league injury. File picture Mark Bode Ex-Rooster Mervyn Powell is yet to lace up again after sustaining a horror rugby league injury. File picture Mark Bode](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/KUhQizDbwW8WqAyPP4x5yp/aa67a678-d713-4d47-b6fc-e1fd2fe72f2d.jpg/r0_0_3266_2417_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Almost a year on from breaking his neck, Mervyn Powell has returned to a familiar feeling and a fresh start.
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The 22-year-old, who played for the Kootingal-Moonbi Roosters in 2023, has recovered from fracturing one or two vertebrae while playing fullback for the Burke Warriors later that year.
Flown to Sydney's Westmead Hospital aboard a NSW Ambulance plane, the lightly built speedster underwent surgery and feels fortunate not to be paralysed and wheelchair-bound.
Talking over the phone from Forbes, where he lived for a short period as a child and where he currently resides with his elder sister Melinda, Powell said he hadn't had a check-up since leaving hospital, but added: "I feel good. No pain or anything."
But despite his good health, Powell as not played since that fateful day against Goodooga in a Barwon Darling Cup clash at Goodooga's Magpies Park on July 30, 2023.
In fact, the young Indigenous man has also stopped watching games live. He gets itchy feet.
"I decided to have a rest for a while," he said of playing footy. "I might get back into it, but I'll see how I feel. But not just yet."
![Powell receives a visit from his mother, Beryl, and his sister, Caitlin, at Westmead Hospital in Sydney in August, 2023. Picture supplied Powell receives a visit from his mother, Beryl, and his sister, Caitlin, at Westmead Hospital in Sydney in August, 2023. Picture supplied](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/KUhQizDbwW8WqAyPP4x5yp/32c6e36a-587c-4647-9a5f-2a8d0b948653.jpg/r0_0_1200_653_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
When Powell reflects on that day at Magpies Park, he thinks he was "very, very lucky".
In August, 2023, Powell - a talented artist whose childhood paintings drew media attention and who is currently looking for work - told the Leader that a defender "flopped" on the back of his neck and he heard "a big crack."
He said he rose, but "got a bit of a head spin". He then lay on his back on the field for several minutes before being helped from the ground.
"But really, I shouldn't have been moved from the field," he said. "The ambulance or something should've got me."
Powell watched the rest of the match from a chair on the sideline, and then his friend drove him the some 200 kilometres back home to Bourke. Once there, he went straight to Bourke Hospital, where an X-ray revealed the broken neck.
"[A doctor at Bourke Hospital] said I was lucky I even make it home from Goodooga to Bourke," he said, adding that he had thought his sore neck was the result of a pulled muscle or something - but certainly not a fracture.