KEEP your chin up and stay positive.
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Andrew Maher is living proof that just because your world is turned upside down on the football field, your whole life doesn't have to be.
Being married to wife Kelly, keeping up with three children - Billy, Jimmy and Max - and working at Bostocks Joinery shows life does go on.
The 35-year-old Wagga man has spoken publicly for the first time since leaving hospital after a horror incident which left him a C4/C5 quadriplegic.
It comes after a sickening tackle on March 24 which has left the family of Newcastle Knights player, Alex McKinnon, waiting for news about what the NRL star's future may hold.
Tuesday marked 13 years since the Wagga Magpies rugby league player broke his neck during a Group Nine reserve-grade game against Harden-Murrumburrah at Eric Weissel Oval.
Andrew was injured during a tackle in the first half of the game - his debut appearance for the Magpies.
Like McKinnon, Andrew was just 22 years old.
"I was running the ball ... it was nothing malicious or anything, it was a legal tackle," Andrew said.
"(I) kind of just got tackled around the legs and as I was going down another fellow just kind of dropped his hip into me and snapped my neck backwards."
The sickening collision injured his C4, C5 and C6 vertebrae.
"At first I thought my feet were directly up in the air ... because I couldn't feel the ground," he said.
"I never realised until Kelly came out onto the field and said 'no you're laying on your back'."
Andrew was in an induced coma for two-and-a-half weeks.
A two-month stint in intensive care and 10 months of rehabilitation followed.
"That's a bonus, (McKinnon) is out of his coma a bit earlier ... and he would have been a lot healthier than me too," he said.
A wave of support has been evident since McKinnon landed on his neck in a three-man tackle during the Knights loss to Melbourne.
The #RiseforAlex hashtag on social media is just one public display.
Andrew said he was buoyed by the help of those around him during his time of need, particularly by the support of family, and recalled how the entire community rallied to raise funds.
He urged McKinnon to remain positive.
"You don't throw the towel in," he said.
"(Life's) really what you make it."
"Just keep your chin up, that's what I always did.
"You've got to kind of keep positive ... that's the truth of it, really.
"I always had good support - Kelly, my mum and dad, family; that's what he needs."
McKinnon was brought out of an induced coma following surgery on March 25 and began communicating with his family on Sunday after his assisted ventilation was removed.
The Knights have condemned a television report that claimed he had been diagnosed as quadriplegic.
Andrew said it was still too early to determine how significant his injuries were.
"You never know, it all depends on how bad he's hurt the spinal cord," he said.
"You can break your four and five (vertebrae) like I did and ... never hurt your spinal cord."