East Wagga-Kooringal footballer Christopher 'Kiwi' Thwaites is in good spirits after undergoing surgery this week.
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Thwaites was flown to Sydney on Sunday morning after suffering a horror injury during the reserve grade game against Marrar at Gumly on Saturday.
He required surgery after fracturing his C7 vertebrae and the early indications following his operation have been promising.
"He's going well. His surgery was successful and all that sort of information is being relayed to the players," EWK senior coach Matt Hard said.
"Everyone's upbeat. He's upbeat himself, so there's no point in us dragging our chin."
Hard visited Thwaites in hospital on Wednesday, travelling to Sydney along with Luke Adams, Brocke Argus and Damien Scott, to check on their teammate, on behalf of the EWK club.
"We went and saw him. He's doing as well as can be expected," Hard said.
"He's got a bit of a road in front of him but he'll recover."
Thwaites, who was supposed to have moved back home to New Zealand this week, knows he has the support of the broader Australian rules community.
The Hawks are throwing their arms around him. A GoFundMe page set up by the club last week has raised $13,000 in just five days.
And the wider football family intends to do what it can.
EWK's opponents this week, Barellan, have announced they'll hold a dedicated raffle at their home ground on Saturday to raise funds for Thwaites and assist in his recovery.
"All we can do is band together," Hard said.
"It's football in general. We're raising some money and we've had some calls from other clubs passing on their well-wishes.
"It's a footy community thing. There's been a lot of people and a lot of clubs reach out and we're very thankful of it."
The injury rocked the Gumly faithful last Saturday.
Hard wasn't looking for excuses after their loss to Marrar but conceded he was well aware their energy was down against the Bombers.
"You throw that in, we were probably a little bit flat on Saturday, and that's probably contributed to it. It was a pretty nasty injury and we were all concerned," Hard said.
The Hawks then copped five injuries in the senior game.
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