As Jack Rutter pulls up a chair at St George’s Park and talks with such pride about captaining England’s Cerebral Palsy team in this month’s world championship, and the thrill he gets from delivering inspirational speeches for the Dame Kelly Holmes Trust, there are moments when it is easy to be swept along with his enthusiasm and forget that this is a man who has been to hell and back.
Rutter has a harrowing story, the sort of tale that lays bare the devastating consequences of a mindless act of violence, and it is testament to the 24-year-old’s determination to rebuild his life – at one point he was struggling to talk let alone play football again – that he has emerged from “some very dark times” and come out the other side.
Most difficult of all for Rutter was accepting that what happened in the early hours of 22 March 2009, outside a nightclub in Gloucester, meant that his dreams of becoming a professional footballer had been shattered. Aged 18 and a promising second-year scholar with Birmingham City at the time – he had joined the club when he was 10 and just helped them reach the FA Youth Cup semi-finals – Rutter left home on a Saturday night to go out with some friends. The next time he woke up he was in intensive care after being the victim of a cowardly attack that left him with brain damage and permanently deaf in his right ear.
Jack Rutter does a few kick-ups at St George's Park. Facebook Twitter Pinterest
Jack Rutter does a few kick-ups at St George’s Park. Photograph: Newsteam
“I remember stepping out of my mum’s car on the night and there being a puddle – I know that sounds mad – but the next thing I remember I was getting blurred memories a couple of weeks after being in hospital,” Rutter says. “I don’t remember anything from the night; all I’ve been told is that I’d just had a couple of drinks with my friends, a normal night out, and then at the end of the night I went over to speak to an old friend and unfortunately there was a lad there who punched me in the back of the head. I didn’t know who he was or his name.
“One single blow to the back of the head knocked me clean out, so I didn’t put my hands out or anything, I just fell and unfortunately I smashed the base of my skull on the kerb, which obviously increased the damage. I was rushed to Frenchay hospital, in Bristol, where there’s a special head unit, and they were absolutely fantastic and did wonders for my recovery.
“I had a fortnight in intensive care, left hospital and I did what the doctor said: I slept, recovered, rested up. When I went back to the hospital quite a few months after that, they told me that the fracture in the skull had healed but that I was going to have balance and coordination problems, but to see how it progresses. I just thought to myself it was like having a broken leg and that the harder I work the more it will get better.”
It was wishful thinking. Rutter, who played at right-back, returned to Birmingham for a month before training with Cheltenham Town and Forest Green Rovers, two of his local clubs, but all the movements that he took for granted before no longer seemed so natural and at times he was in severe discomfort.
“I was breaking into tears playing football,” Rutter says. “Heading the ball … it’s got better now, but back then I was getting migraines and ringing in my ear. I couldn’t turn as quickly, I was falling over, all these things that I could do so easily were becoming so hard for me, and it was demoralising. I went to Shortwood in the end, the final club before I did actually retire. They’re a fantastic club, but it’s the Evo-Stik Hellenic League and I was struggling to play.”
That was 2010 and Rutter admits that it would have been a major struggle to get through the next two years without the love and support of his mother, Francesca, and his sister, Rosamund. There were bouts of depression and anxiety to deal with and he has never forgotten the phone call he received in the gym one day, informing him that his attacker had been released. “Six months after the assault he’s out of prison and I’m still trying to go through a ladder without falling over,” Rutter says. “That was one of the darkest times.”
The two men have never crossed paths since. “I haven’t seen him and I don’t particularly want to,” Rutter says. “I would hope that he’s learned his lesson. I just hope that I can make people realise on both hands, be careful of what is around you on nights out, also if you have got violence in you, take it out on a punchbag, take it out in a constructive manner, don’t go smacking people’s heads because the damage you can cause is horrific.”
Rutter started to see some light at the end of the tunnel at the beginning of 2012, when the charity Headway, which provides support to people who have suffered brain injuries, helped introduce him to cerebral palsy football. The game is seven-a-side, played on a smaller pitch with no offside rule, and open to those with other neurological disorders such as strokes and traumatic brain injury.
Within 12 months Rutter was representing England, yet nobody should underestimate the dedication and commitment he showed to get to that stage.
“Without sounding too dramatic, when I left hospital my balance was that bad that I was in a wheelchair,” Rutter says. “I’m not saying I had to use a wheelchair all the time, but I couldn’t stand up straight because I had such a pain in my head and my balance was that bad that it was like I was drunk,” Rutter says.
Jack Rutter bends it like Beckham. Facebook Twitter Pinterest
Jack Rutter bends it like Beckham. Photograph: Newsteam
“From there to now, it’s lucky that I’ve been able to compensate well for it, but it has come from hard work. I didn’t just suddenly play for England and I was better again. I’ve worked so hard on my coordination, balance and agility – ladder work, cone work, shuttle runs five times a week.”
While Rutter says that he takes great inspiration from his England team-mates and the way they get on with their lives, his own circumstances are unique in a team that has players with different levels of disability. “My story is quite unusual in that I was a victim of violence. Alistair Patrick-Heselton, who played in the last Olympics, he was a semi-pro footballer, had been at QPR and had a bright future, and he had a car crash. And a lot of the lads were born with cerebral palsy, some of them were in wheelchairs, bullied at school, so they’ve got their own stories, they’ve been through some hard times as well.”
Being involved with England gave Rutter more self-belief and encouraged him to address other aspects of his condition, in particular the mental and speech difficulties that had prevented him from completing a degree he started at Nottingham University.
“I couldn’t do that because it was too soon after the brain injury, because where I had frontal lobe damage my concentration and attention span was affected and I couldn’t really spell very well at the time. I was actually struggling to talk sometimes – I couldn’t get my words and vocabulary out.
“When I got the opportunity with the England team I was motivated and thought I want to improve everything in my life as much as I can. So I started reading books, practising my speech with my mum, talking about different topics to improve my vocabulary, using different skills that Headway say to use to remember stuff, like reminders on your phone, and I gained in confidence. It’s been over six years now since my assault and everything’s got that little bit better.”
Rutter is a credit to himself and his family and there is something genuinely uplifting about spending time in his company. Excitement radiates from him when the conversation turns to the world championship, which England will get under way at St George’s Park on Tuesday against Japan in their opening group game, and with all his optimism and positivity it is easy to see why the motivational talks he gives to disadvantaged young adults are so well received.
“I can’t thank people like Jeff Davis, who is head of disability football at the FA, enough for giving me an opportunity to play disability sport and turn my life around,” Rutter says. “Luckily it’s gone from strength to strength for me, I’ve become captain of the team and got to work with the Dame Kelly Holmes Trust. I try and show everyone what can happen if you overcome adversity and keep trying to do the right things. Stick to some key skills – honesty, respect, determination – and eventually you’ll be able to achieve your dreams. I hope I’m an example of that.”
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