A PROMISING young Northwich Rugby Club player's dreams of a professional career hang in the balance after a horrific car crash in Whitegate.

Gavin Venter, aged 18, and his father Cobus were travelling to Northwich from their home in Winsford when their Citroen Saxo was in a terrifying head-on collision with a silver BMW in Whitegate Road on the morning of Saturday, August 2.

Both father and son were rushed to Leighton Hospital with serious injuries - Cobus broke eight ribs and Northwich first team player Gavin incurred a ruptured spleen, broke the femur in his right leg and dislocated a toe.

Gavin had only had his car for a week and recently returned from University College Worcester, where his outstanding skills as a prop forward had secured him a degree place at the college's rugby union academy, a breeding ground for future internationals.

Gavin, recovering at home after just been released from hospital, said: "I was changing down a gear and I saw the car coming towards me.

"It was travelling at speed on the wrong side of the road.

"Next thing I remember, I was upside down in the car and I couldn't move. I remember hearing my dad shout for someone to help me, and then the firefighters had to use the jaws of life cutting gear to get me out.

"They strapped both of my legs together and put a collar on my neck and took us to Leighton Hospital."

Cobus is distraught at his son's plight and said: "When Gavin was 13 he came to me and said 'Dad, I want you to show me how to be a professional rugby player.'

"I told him that I couldn't show him that, but I could show him how to get fit enough to get there one day. And from then on he used to run up and down the roads around his home, day in, day out.

"He even strapped weights to his legs to increase his strength and the neighbours would complain about the noise it made."

To make matters worse, the accident happened just as Cobus was set to open Steadfast Engineering Supplies, a new business in Hartford Business Centre.

However, all is not lost for his talented son - Gavin obtained some excellent results in his A-levels from Sir John Deane's College and Worcester have told him they will hold his place at the academy if he makes it back to full strength.

rfraser@guardiangrp.co.uk