A young rugby player who was paralysed in an accident on the pitch almost a year ago is determined to move back to Wimbledon and get back to work.

Jack Fishwick, 27, who will never walk again, has been nominated for a Merton Civic Award for his courage in dealing with the life-changing rugby accident which has left him wheelchair-bound and paralysed from the shoulders down.

An air ambulance lifted Mr Fishwick, of Wimbledon Broadway, to hospital after he was crushed at the bottom of a scrum on the pitch at a London Division One South game at Haywards Heath on March 8 last year.

Wimbledon Times:

Jack Fishwick, centre, at a fundraising rugby sevens tournament 

He had emergency surgery and was in Hurstwood Park Neurosciences Centre for eight weeks and then Stoke Mandeville Hospital receiving specialist treatment for eight months before being discharged at the end of November.

Jack is now living with his parents and a full-time live-in carer in Wiltshire but is searching for suitable properties in Wimbledon so he can get back to work.

Wimbledon Times:

Jack Fishwick pictured before the accident

He is more used to treating musculo-skeletal injuries than being the one in therapy.

Having graduated from St Mary's University in Twickenham in 2010, he had been working as a sports injury rehabilitator and was seeing 20 to 40 patients a week at Wimbledon's Bounce gym and Bodymotion Chiropractic and Sports Injuries Clinic in central London.

Despite being a tetraplegic and relying on a wheelchair to get about, he watches his former Wimbledon RFC team-mates from the sidelines and visits his gym colleagues regularly.

He said he is in talks about what role he can play in the business.

He said: "I am desperate to get back to work.

"It is a very exciting time for them.

"I was a clinical practitioner - I want to be able to do that, to be an active and integral part of the business."

Friends and family have raised thousands of pounds at events including rugby tournaments, dinners and walks, to pay for Jack’s on-going care, something he says he has been astonished by.

Speaking about the Civic Award nomination, he said: "I am pleased to be nominated and very humbled by it.

"The last 10 months have been so manic, there is so much happening. I am being supported so well by so many different sources.

"I am still struggling to contemplate everyone’s kindness and compassion about what happened."

Nominations are now open for the Merton Civic Awards.

To nominate someone, visit www.wimbledonguardian.co.uk/mertoncivicawards or fill out a form in this week’s newspaper.