Billy Cookson: Car crash cricketer's recovery continues

Billy Cookson was injured on his first day working as a delivery driver

An amateur cricket player who was seriously injured in a head-on car crash in Australia has left hospital for the first time.

In October Billy Cookson, 23, suffered punctured lungs, a torn liver, a broken leg and both ankles, and a shattered right arm.

He had travelled to Melbourne to play cricket and was working as a delivery driver when the accident happened.

His father, Matt, said he had been surprising doctors with his recovery.

Billy said he was out of the rehab hospital for an evening but still had a long road to recovery.

"I haven't been discharged yet and won't be for a couple of months," he said.

'No pain'

Billy Cookson, from Chippenham, Wiltshire said his physiotherapy had been "full-on" with two sessions a day.

He now faces an operation on his elbow, at the end of the month, and then doctors will turn their attention to his leg.

"I'll get a frame on my leg while they try to grow back the bone I lost in my femur, and it looks like I'll be able to weight-bear up to about 30%," he said.

"There's no pain there which is encouraging and my next step is to be able to get up and walk.

"It's unbelievable that in such a short period of time how you forget to pick your feet up."

Mr Cookson said his son had been doing "brilliantly well" but added it had been very difficult knowing he had missed out on being at home for Christmas.

"Things were a little flat and difficult but it was great to hear he'd got out of hospital on Christmas Day [which] helped us along a little bit," he said.

Mr Cookson had been playing as an overseas cricketer for Kyabram Cricket Club but on his first day as a tools delivery driver his pick-up truck collided with a bus.

He was taken to hospital and placed into an induced coma after undergoing surgery.