How head injury helped Knoyle 'build' as a player

Kyle Knoyle has made 12 appearances for Mansfield Town since joining the League One side in the summer

Kyle Knoyle cannot recall the grisly collision that left him with a bleed on the brain, but the Mansfield Town defender knows how the injury has changed him.

It was in a game against the team he now plays for on New Year's Day 2024 that the then Stockport County defender clashed heads with team-mate Ibou Touray.

The incident left Knoyle unconscious.

He was given oxygen on the pitch as medics attended to him, before being carried off on a stretcher and then taken to hospital.

"It was an horrific injury but my recollection of it at the the time wasn't obviously the best because I was knocked out," Knoyle told BBC Sport.

"Finding out the extent of the injury wasn't easy to deal with, but everyone at the club supported me and made sure my health was the most important thing.

"It was a subdural haematoma. While the size of the bleed was really miniscule - about the size of a penny - it comes under that same bracket, so you have to be careful."

Knoyle said that he had "felt back to normal pretty quick" after the incident, but the magnitude of the injury meant he was sidelined for three months.

"I had constant scans to see where I was at. And even once I was clear, the protocol was a bit of a grey area because it is a rare injury. But we took the right steps that when I did come back, I was ready to come back."

He managed to return for the final weeks of the season, but a hamstring problem suffered that summer meant he missed the first four months of the following campaign.

The two injuries limited him to just 10 appearances in 12 months.

And while the setbacks were completely different, Knoyle said they have shaped him both on and off the pitch.

"They have built me as a player and person," he said.

"I've learned from it. You appreciate your health in general because of things like that.

"It feels like the end of the world with these sort of injuries, but as time goes by your memory fades in that sense.

"But when you look back at it, overcoming things like that puts you in good stead for any other adversity in the future."

It has been more than 18 months since Knoyle suffered his head injury, and in the summer he left Stockport for the club he was playing against the day he was hurt.

Knoyle has started every League One game for Mansfield since his arrival at the One Call Stadium, making the most of the "fresh start" and the uninterrupted pre-season after the horror run of injuries.

Mention of the head injury to Stags boss Nigel Clough prompted a grimace as he recalled the incident and "sickening sound" of the clash.

For Knoyle, the injury is behind him.

He also admitted that he does not dwell on the head knock when asked if he was ever worried about lasting affects.

"That comes into question, which you don't really want to think about as a player," he said.

"You do worry of what if it happens again or any potential symptoms that you would feel after, but once that first game came and you get back into the swing of it and the adrenaline, you get through it and tick off each game.

"And the longer the time goes on since the actual incident, the more you recover and the more you heal.

"It's not easy to think about during the moment, but as time goes on you go back to normal."