Alex McKinnon has spoken emotionally of his desire to fully recover from his spinal injury declaring: “I want to walk again”.
Speaking to the media for the first time since he suffered the injury in March, McKinnon said he has enjoyed significant progress over the last four months.
The 22-year-old will return to Newcastle for the first time since being injured for Sunday’s round 19 NRL match against the Gold Coast, which is part of the NRL’s Rise for Alex Round.
“As much as I would love to get home and get back to my family and get back to Newcastle and get on with my life I want to walk again,” McKinnon said on Monday.
“You see a lot of stories about people who get on with their lives and don’t walk again. My focus is to get as much back of my movement as I can and I am slowly improving.
“For example when I first got diagnosed I was a C4, all that is shoulder movement. Nothing else. No fingers, no movement in your legs, or anything like that.
“I am slowly progressing with the movement, I am a C7 now.”
McKinnon is set to leave his rehabilitation facility in Ryde in two months to settle again in Newcastle with his fiancee Teigan Power and may travel to the United States as part of his further rehabilitation.
“It’s going to be a slow and long process but I am willing to do that,” he said.
“I’m 22 and I’m going to give it my best shot.”