PHIL Jones remembers the tackle that left Matt King paralysed as being 'nothing out of the ordinary'.

King was left consigned to a wheelchair for life after suffering horrific spinal injuries playing for the London Broncos Academy at Halifax back in 2004, two weeks after his 17 th birthday.

Jones, who is now the club's head of youth performance, worked for a Broncos Academy very much in its infancy back then, which he combined with a community role at the club.

And there was none more pleased than Jones this week when King was awarded an OBE for his services to charity since his life-changing injury.

Jones said: “I remember it was our first game of the season, and we were due to play as a curtain-raiser for the Halifax first team, but as they were worried about their waterlogged pitch our game was moved to a local amateur ground.

“So that we didn't have to travel up on the day of the game, we had slept over at Halifax's ground, kipping in sleeping bags on the floor of the bar.

“It was in the first minute of the game that it happened. It was the sort of challenge you see 100 times in any given match, nothing out of the ordinary, but Matt just stayed down. We thought it might just be concussion at first.”

Instead, it soon became clear that King, now 25, would never walk again, never mind playing rugby league. But rather than wallow in self-pity, he soon became an inspirational figure for anyone suffering such an injury.

Jones said: “Matt was always the sort of character who was very focused, and even as he was lying there on the pitch, he was already looking to the future rather than thinking 'why has this happened to me'.

“Matt had some talent, but still had a lot of hard work to do. It was too early to tell if he would make it as a player, but there were certainly more talented players in the team than him (St Helens' Louis McCarthy-Scarsbrook and Michael Worrincey, who went on to play for Bradford Bulls, both played for Broncos in that fateful game).

“It was clear he would have a future though, and was always planning to go to university whatever happened.”

Ironically, Bedfordshire-born King was spotted by Broncos playing for Bedford Swifts, a team set up by Les Cook, the father of current Broncos star Matt Cook, who had moved down south for work but still wanted to play the game.