Mike Ballard’s positive attitude is bearing fruit as he continues his recovery from a serious spinal injury.
The American prop says he knew immediately what had happened when he suffered the life-changing injury playing for the Abu Dhabi Harlequins in April, but has now been set the target of walking with the aid of straight-leg braces in three months.
Ballard is currently wheelchair-bound and back living with his parents for the first time in six years, as he splits his time between their Michigan home and the local hospital where he does four hours of out-patient physiotherapy every week.
However, the 29-year-old has retained his independence, getting about in his specially modified, hand-controlled car, as well as a hand cycle and even a borrowed motorised scooter.
“It’s going really well,” Ballard says of his rehab. “I’m doing out-patient therapy so I’ve got all kinds of stretches and exercises I’ve got to do on my own at home. Honestly, I only have four hours a week of responsibility so it’s been relaxing. I’ve spent a lot of time in the sun, I’ve been getting as much exercise as I can get in.”
Ballard, who says he is still in “getting healed mode”, added: “I’ve just spoken to my physical therapist and she said that a good goal for me would be three months from now to be able to walk around the house using straight-leg braces.
“They’re basically braces that keep my legs locked in a straight position, and I can walk using my hips and my abs.”
The news will come as music to the ears of his friends and supporters in the UAE, many of whom have helped either in setting up the Mike Ballard Foundation or in putting on events to raise money and awareness.
Ballard paid for his new car to be fitted with hand controls thanks to money from the Foundation, while he is currently hoping to save up enough to buy his own hand cycle.
But the former baseball player has more practical needs too, with the cost of catheters alone running into the hundreds of dollars a week.
It is understandable then that he gets a little emotional when asked what the fundraising efforts, more than 7,000 miles away, mean to him.
“It’s absolutely unreal,” he said. “There was the Quins family and that group of friends who when you live so far away from home becomes your family while you’re over there.
“So I knew everybody had each other’s back and everybody was going to be great, but I had no idea it would snowball into what it has become.”
Ballard has still got a long road of rehab ahead of him but, thanks to his former team-mates, he is at least able to keep up with goings on at Zayed Sports City on his iPad.
Formerly the proud owner of a “Nokia brick” before that, Ballard now expects to be “skyped in from the hill for most of the games” so he can continue to support his beloved Quins.
