Doctors believe that a near four-hour operation carried out on former Southend United soccer star Dave Cusack has been a success.

Cusack broke two bones in his neck in a car accident recently and the delicate surgery, where a graft was taken from his groin to fuse them back together, was carried out two days before Christmas at Oldchurch Hospital.

Cusack, currently an official with Schweppes Essex Senior League club Basildon United, was taken to Oldchurch under police escort from Chelmsford's Broomfield Hospital, where he was rushed by ambulance after the accident in Woodham.

The former player, whose other clubs during his pro career included Sheffield Wednesday and Millwall, was travelling back from soccer pal Dave Golding's South Woodham Ferrers home to where he lives in Rayleigh in the early hours of Monday December 20 when his car is believed to have hit black ice and overturned into a field.

The vehicle was spotted by a passing motorist and, when police arrived at the scene, they found Cusack in nearby bushes away from the vehicle.

Mr Golding said: "Dave is still in Oldchurch under heavy sedation and so it will be some time before police can discover the exact details of what happened.

"Dave was certainly wearing a seat belt at the time as he was complaining of chest soreness afterwards which would have been caused by the impact from the belt when the car crashed.

"Just how he managed to get out of the car afterwards we don't know at this stage, although police said at the time that it was a good job he was spotted when he was otherwise he could have been in real danger of hypothermnia."

Despite the apparent success of his operation, Cusack is likely to remain in intensive care at Oldchurch for at least another week before, hopefully, he will be well enough to be transferred to a hospital nearer his home.

Mr Golding added: "Those who do visit him should realise that Dave is still having a lot of drugs administered and it may well be that they'll find him not particularly lucid, but all the support he's received has been marvellous."

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