‘Something that should never have happened’
An unmistakable indicator of the long lay-off Mansfield’s John Thompson faced was the pool of blood soaking into the New Manor pitch, but not even he could have forecast the mental torture that incident in August 2011 would unleash.
Thompson, a former Ireland international, was still in his twenties when the career he cherished was somersaulted, literally and metaphorically, into a place of no return. Those few seconds between Gary Ricketts shoving him at speed towards the hoardings and the moment of impact will stay with him for life.
