A YOUNG footballer says he waited an hour and 40 minutes for an ambulance at the weekend after breaking two bones in his leg.
Nathan Webb, 20, of Common Road, Gilwern, will be out of football for the rest of the year after suffering a serious injury which onlookers said was similar to that of Wales player Aaron Ramsey.
The left-back was playing for Gilwern and District in their match against Llanarth on Saturday when he broke two bones in his lower right leg.
The footballer said: "I went to kick the ball with the side of my foot.
"My leg went round the side of his leg and I knew I'd broken it straight away."
Mr Webb said he lifted his leg up and his foot and ankle were flopping about.
"It was really scary. It was the first time I've broken anything so it was a shock."
Play at the Gilwern pitch was abandoned for about 15 minutes and one of the linesmen, who is also a GP, put the footballer in the recovery position and told him to take deep breaths.
Gilwern and District manager and secretary, Huw Burkitt, said a total of six 999 calls were made and that a paramedic arrived one hour and 20 minutes after the first call.
He said it took a further 20 minutes before an ambulance arrived.
Mr Burkitt said: “Nathan was in serious pain and was shaking like a leaf so we were very concerned. There was no way we could take him to hospital."
Mr Webb said it felt more like days while waiting for the ambulance to arrive.
"I was freezing cold in shorts and a football top, shivering like hell. A couple of the boys chucked me their jackets but none of them could move me."
Mr Burkitt now plans to write to the Ambulance Service.
He added: "The ambulance crew themselves said it’s not good enough but they said they were stretched so thinly."
Mr Webb was taken to Nevill Hall Hospital in Abergavenny where the bones were put back in place on Sunday.
He came home on Wednesday but had to return to hospital yesterday for an x-ray.
His leg is in plaster for the next two months and he expects to be off work at his father's glazing company for the next three months.
A spokesman for the Welsh Ambulance Service said he cannot comment on individual patients' cases but that the service is happy to discuss the matter with the individual or family concerned.
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