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WHAT sort of young man is Alex McKinnon?
We don't know a lot about him. We know he turned 22 last month, that he injured his foot last year which caused him to miss a handful of games midway through the season right after things started going well — following his representative debut for Country.
We know that the quietness in the Knights dressing room after Monday's game, in which McKinnon fractured his C4 and C5 vertebrae, went beyond defeat.
Everybody sat there, heads down, locked in silence.
Alex McKinnon falls awkwardly in clash against the Storm. Scans reveal he has fractured his vertebrae. Source: FoxSports
McKinnon is still in hospital this morning, and will be for some time. Doctors cannot determine the extent of damage to his spinal cord until the swelling around his neck goes down in the next few days, possibly weeks.
In Newcastle yesterday the Knights were under instructions not to talk about McKinnon. They will be again today and tomorrow. Nobody wants to risk mistaken information, and possibly harmful information, being leaked when the matter is so serious.
So what sort of young man is Alex McKinnon?
Like many young footballers he has a Twitter account but, unlike many young footballers, he fails to comment about the inane activities — "brekky with the boys this morning. ham and eggs #cholesterol #skinfolds" — of daily life.
He posted his last Tweet a month ago, a retweet from actor and former wrestler Dwayne Johnson, better known as The Rock: "Realized over the years that success doesn't change a person ... it only magnifies who've (sic) they've been their entire life."
With that small glimpse, we see McKinnon is unlike most footballers, a man willing to entertain a world where football ends.
This morning you hope he realises that if success doesn't change a person, neither does injury.
McKinnon's previous Tweet, before the ponderings of The Rock, was a thank you to his girlfriend for his birthday present, a skydiving voucher.
Before that it was another retweet. On January 28, he wrote: "Repost; usually just scroll past these posts, but this is something that has to be heard. Sometimes we don't realise how good we've got it."
And while the repost was unexpected from a footballer, you might be now coming to expect it from Alex McKinnon.
X-Ray image of the C4 and C5 vertebrae in the spine. Source: FoxSports
It was a quote, and it said: "I will post and repost this till the cows come home. Kids with special needs are not weird or odd or sick. They only want what everyone else wants ... to be accepted!! Can I make a request? Is anyone willing to post this in honour of all children who were made in a unique way. Let's see who has a strong heart."
Let's see who has a strong heart.
Coaches are always looking for good players, it's the way it is. And it's no secret the good ones go looking for something beyond talent. Beyond size and speed and skill.
They go looking for heart.
That's why the dressing room was so quiet on Monday night.
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Every injury like McKinnon has suffered is a tragedy, but not everybody has the ability to reach in and touch the heart of teammates like Alex McKinnon.
It is uncommon, and went beyond the pain for a fallen mate. There are one or two in every club.
Before Christmas he retweeted a photo of twin babies in a hospital incubator in their first week of life.
"Each were in their respective incubators and one was not expected to live," the caption reads.
"A hospital nurse fought against the hospital rules and placed the babies in one incubator. When they were placed together, the healthier of the two threw her arm over her sister in an endearing embrace. The smaller baby's heart stabilized and temperature rose to normal."
It's there on his Twitter page, the modern fingerprint of a footballer we know so little about, the photo of the child in hospital with a protective arm around her. It is a metaphor for something this morning.
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