Newcastle football community rallies for Luke Remington after horror leg injury

The grand final rematch on Friday night at Adamstown Oval was called off at 1-1 as 28-year-old Remington lay on the pitch in agony waiting for an ambulance for more than a hour.

His left ankle was "180 degrees the wrong way" after a high-speed collision with Maitland defender Tom Davies while contesting a loose ball in the 22^nd minute. The 8pm match was abandoned about 9.15pm and will be replayed.

Remington, the 2015 NPL player of the year, was taken to John Hunter Hospital and remained there on Sunday as doctors waited for swelling to subside before surgery.

Jaffas coach David Tanchevski set up a GoFundMe page for Remington, who works as a renderer, and donations were past $7000 just 23 hours later.

"Luke has been blown away by it," Tanchevski said.

"He couldn't believe how much everyone was supporting him.

"And he's really humbled by it. I know [finances] are one of his concerns because he won't be able to work for a while and the medical bills will mount up.

"It's been really good so far, some great support from the whole football community and a lot of the clubs are sharing it."

He said both sides of the dislocated ankle were broken, as well as the leg.

"It was facing the wrong way, 180 degrees the wrong way," he said. "When we ran out there he was trying to look at it and we threw a bib over it quickly so he couldn't see it. It was pretty ugly."

He said Remington had only Panadol and was shivering and convulsing in pain, going in and out of consciousness, while they waited for paramedics.

"I don't think the ambulance turned up until about 9.50pm, so it was the right call [to abandon the game]," he said. "The sprinklers were meant to come on as well and they couldn't stop them."

As for the challenge that led to the injury, Tanchevski said Remington was "unlucky". No sanction was given for the incident. Clubs had been issued a memo that day warning that red cards would be given for "tackles which endanger the safety of an opponent".

"The challenge itself is one of those things," Tanchevski said.

"You see 50 of those challenges with no injuries, so there's nothing from that. It's just unlucky."

The game had been a fiery affair as tensions from last year's controversial grand final threatened to boil over. Premiers Maitland went down 1-0 to Jaffas in the decider after losing two players to injuries from questionable tackles and defender Zach Thomas to a red card in the 23rd minute. The red card was later deemed an obvious error and wiped on appeal.

Jaffas led on Friday night via a sixth-minute penalty from Bailey Newton after he was fouled.

Maitland equalised in the 13th minute with a strike from James Thompson after a shot from Braedyn Crowley was saved into his path.

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