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McGovern amazed by 'miracle' recovery

Mark McGovern has spoken for the first time about his recovery from the serious brain injury that kept him in a coma for over a month this summer.

MARK McGOVERN MADE headlines in June when an alleged assault during a Gaelic football match in San Francisco left him comatose, with a low likelihood of recovery.

The 23-year-old defied the odds, however, first to regain consciousness and then begin a rehabilitative programme, at which he has thus far excelled.

Speaking for the first time since the incident, the Belcoo native told the BBC that, in retrospect, it was “amazing that [he] even came out of [the coma]“.

“One of my doctors told me that I was 97.5% dead… At that stage I really really did think of it as a miracle how bad I was.

“I never even knew how bad a shape I was until I was speaking to the doctor.”

In the weeks since he woke from the coma, McGovern has had to relearn a host of basic skills, including walking and talking, but appears on track to make a full recovery.

Though his prognosis is a positive one, the player’s family will likely have to continue their fundraising efforts: McGovern’s medical costs comfortably exceed $1 million.

Patrick Power, the player deemed responsible for the original off-the-ball incident, received a 96-week ban from the San Francisco Competition Controls Committee and was reported to have been questioned by the San Francisco Police Department.

Read more on this story from the BBC>

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    May 17th 2012, 6:01 PM

    interesting comments from avram grant today in the daily mail uk about the penalties in moscow in 2008.
    after drogba was sent off it left one free penalty taker for chelsea,the plan was for kalou to take it until it became clear that chelseas last penalty was to win it, john terry insisted he’d take it. the rest is history. viva john terry

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    May 18th 2012, 12:29 AM

    I know your comment is still valuable but the daily mail isn’t the most reliable of sources tbh. And Kalou stepping up to a penelty god help us anyway

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