Sean Highdale should be in his prime as a footballer.

At the age of 29 he should be fulfilling

the rich potential that lit up the fields of Liverpool’s Kirkby academy during his formative
years.
But rather than preparing for the new season, he’s working on his next property deal. These
days he’s a successful businessman and an Anfield season ticket holder. He hung up his boots
a few years ago after a spell with Aigburth People’s Hall in the Liverpool County Premier
League.
His story is an extraordinary one. The fact he’s even alive to tell the tale is nothing short of
miraculous.
Highdale, who grew up in the Halewood area of Liverpool, was a combative midfielder and
captain of Liverpool under-18s. He was part of the squad who won the FA Youth Cup in 2007
and was also a highly-rated England youth international where he shone alongside Jack
Wilshere. He dreamed of following in the footsteps of his hero Steven Gerrard.
He signed professionally for Liverpool when he turned 17 in March 2008 and the following
month he was informed that he was being promoted from Kirkby to Melwood to train with
Gary Ablett’s reserve squad ahead of the 2008-09 season.
“I was buzzing. I felt like I was on top of the world,” he tells The Athletic.
Within 24 hours he had come tumbling down. A horrific car crash, in which two of his close
friends died, left him in a coma and with life-changing injuries.
“I had a bleed on my brain, I broke my ankle, I broke my neck, I had to have a kidney
removed and I dislocated my right knee, snapping three of the four main ligaments. I was in a
bad way,” he says matter-of-factly.
Medical staff told him to forget about ever playing football again. What followed is testament
to the power of human resilience.
“As a little kid, I was always a mad Red. It runs in the family,” Highdale tells me as he sips a
cappuccino in the Milo Lounge café on Lark Lane in south Liverpool.
Over the course of an hour-and-a-half he’s engaging company. Lean and tanned following a
recent holiday in Spain, he looks like a footballer in his jeans and designer T-shirt.
“I grew up just off Macket’s Lane between Halewood and Hunts Cross. I only ever wanted to
play for Liverpool. I remember jumping up and down on the couch at home when I was told
that I had a trial. I was seven and I was so made up,” he smiles.
“I played for Huntswood on Saturdays and Country Park (Trent Alexander-Arnold’s former
junior club) on Sundays. I trained with Liverpool through to the age of nine when we all
found out whether we were getting signed or not.
“Initially, I didn’t get taken on but then a few months later Liverpool got in touch with my
family to say they had made a mistake and asked me to come back. I signed straightaway. I
was there from then right up through to the under-18s.
“Back then, when you signed as a pro, the scout who spotted you initially got a bit of money.
There was a bit of conflict with a few people trying to claim me but it was definitely Arthur
Edwards, who sadly passed away earlier this year. He was a legend in the area in terms of
scouting.”
Highdale wasn’t short of positive influences. Kop icon Steve Heighway was running
Liverpool’s academy and he was assisted by coaches of the calibre of Hughie McAuley and
Dave Shannon. They had helped develop the likes of Gerrard, Carragher, Robbie Fowler,
Michael Owen, David Thompson, Dominic Matteo and Steve McManaman.
His dad Derek, a hod carrier in the building industry, was always on his case — ensuring he
applied himself and made the most of the opportunities that came his way.
“He’s been the biggest influence on my whole life,” Highdale says. “’Degsy’ as people know
him was a good footballer himself. He played in the Welsh Prem for Bangor City. He knows
his stuff.
“When it was freezing cold, he was the one getting me out on that field and motivating me,
making sure I was fit and raring to go. My dad can’t drive so it was my mum who was always
taking me to training and back home again. She couldn’t drive herself until I was 10 or 11 so
we used to get the bus together. They made a lot of sacrifices for me.
“At the end of every season at the academy we’d get the chance to play on the pitch at
Anfield and one year Steven Gerrard was there to give out the certificates. He was always my
hero and he still is. He’s the only person in this world who I’m kind of in awe of.
“As a kid, I used to play a lot in the No 10 position. I wasn’t a big tackler, I had little twinkle
toes and would create chances for others. That was my game until I was about 14.
“Then we played Man City away and I was up against Kieran Trippier in centre midfield. Me
and him used to have some good battles. This one got a bit feisty. I went in for this big tackle,
won the ball and the Liverpool fans there watching loved it. I got the bug for getting stuck in
after that.
“My position changed. I dropped deeper and became a lot more physical. I loved getting on
the ball and dictating play. Lads like Nathan Eccleston, David Amoo and Alex Kacaniklic
were in my age group. Sometimes I’d play up a year or two with players like Martin Kelly
and Jay Spearing.
“When I was about 15 I missed a season due to a stress fracture in my back. I played with it
for a while. The kind of player I was, I didn’t want to tell anyone I was struggling but
gradually it got worse and worse. I came back strong from that setback.”
He came back so strong in fact that he was picked to play for Kenny Swain’s England Under-
16s in the Victory Shield in the autumn of 2006. The following April he would have become
the first Liverpool player to grace the new Wembley Stadium but missed the international
against Spain because it clashed with the FA Youth Cup final against Manchester United.
“We won the Victory Shield by beating Scotland in our final game and I got the assist for
Nathan Delfouneso’s winner with a mis-hit volley,” he laughs. “We had a decent team with
Jack Wilshere, Jack Rodwell and Oliver Norwood in there too. In training, Wilshere was just
on another level to everyone else. He was quality.
“I was in the England squad to face Spain just after Wembley reopened but the following day
it was the FA Youth Cup final. Steve Heighway called me into his office and said: ‘You’ve
got a massive part to play with me.’
“I understood as it was Man United in the second leg at Old Trafford. But in the end I was an
unused sub as we won on penalties so that was a bit gutting. I was only 16 so I was young to
be involved in the FA Youth Cup squad at that stage.”
An overhaul at Kirkby in the summer of 2007 saw Heighway depart and Dutchman Piet
Hamberg brought in as academy technical director. Over the course of 2007-08 Highdale
flourished and was given the under-18s captaincy by McAuley.
He came up against current Liverpool captain Jordan Henderson in the fifth round of the FA
Youth Cup in February 2008. Henderson’s Sunderland triumphed 5-3 after extra time at the
Stadium of Light.
“I’ve still got the DVDs of all the games that season,” Highdale says. “I remember Henderson
was playing on the right of midfield. That turned out to be the last time I ever played in the
Youth Cup.
“We’d have team meetings after training when the coaches would run through what we’d
done right and wrong. I’d always ask Hughie if I could take a copy of the DVD home so I
could analyse it myself.
“I’m glad I did that as they’re nice to have. I while back I walked into the house and my dad
was sat there watching one of my old games. It was pretty sad in a way. I know what it would
meant to him if things had turned out differently for me. Just before the accident, that was the
best football I ever played. Every game I felt like the best player on the pitch.”
Then came Sunday April 6 2008, the fateful day that changed his life forever.
On the Saturday, Highdale had played with a swagger for Liverpool Under-18s against Derby
County at Kirkby. His future looked incredibly bright.
“Before we played Derby, Hughie called me in, along with Nathan Eccleston and Steven
Irwin, and told us that we would be moving up to the reserves at Melwood for the following
season,” he says.
“I was so happy. It was a big step forward. It was what I’d been working towards. Back then
you usually did a two-year YTS and then you turned pro, but after the first year Liverpool
said they wanted me to sign professionally when I turned 17. The timing of that turned out to
be very lucky for me. The contract meant I had the security of getting paid.”
The players were given the Sunday off and Highdale decided to go to the cinema with his
mates.
“We were going to get the train from Hunts Cross into town but when we went around to the
station all the trains were on strike so we walked back,” he recalls.
“My mate Kalam had passed his test a few weeks before so he said he would drive us instead.
From that moment I got into the car, I can’t remember anything. The next thing I remember is
waking up in hospital. A total blackout.”
Highdale was one of five teenagers travelling in a Vauxhall Astra along Speke Boulevard at
around 10.30pm which collided with a Volkswagen Beetle. The impact sent the Astra
spinning across the carriageway before it was catapulted through trees, resting on its roof in
nearby woodland.
Kalam Wooding and Tom Benn, both 17, died in the accident, while Danny Moran, who was
on Tranmere Rovers’ books, was left in a critical condition. Twelve years on he still requires
round-the-clock care. The driver of the Beetle fortunately escaped with only whiplash.
“I only know what people at the scene have told my family and what the crash investigators
believe happened,” Highdale says. “A fella who was driving behind us seems to think that
when we went to join the dual carriageway there was another car on our right already on it.
Apparently we tried to get ahead of it, clipped it and that flipped our car over.
“They reckon I was sat in the passenger seat and then when the car started tumbling I must
have put my foot up on the dashboard to try to protect myself. They think it was the force
from that which pushed my foot back and shattered the bones in my ankle.
“My mum and dad were actually among the first on the scene. A girl I knew growing up
happened to be driving by so she’d rung my dad to tell him I’d been involved in a crash. I was
in a coma for five days so it was a while before I knew what had happened to the other lads. It
was devastating.”
His mum Lindzi broke the news to him as he lay in his hospital bed.
“We had our little group of mates and we were very close. Tom and Danny were the real
jokers of the group,” he says. “Kalam lived just around the corner from us when we were
kids. Danny was my closest friend. He was at Liverpool when we were younger and then he
went to Tranmere.
“Danny went into a coma and he hasn’t ever properly woken up. He’s got a low state of
awareness. If you clap your hands he blinks so he reacts to certain things. It’s so sad. He lives
in south Liverpool. I need to go and visit him again as it’s been a while. It’s just so hard
seeing him like that.
“The fifth lad in the car was Ricky. I didn’t really know him that well. He was more Kalam’s
mate. He wasn’t seriously hurt. I remember I tried to get out of bed to go to one of the
funerals as I was desperate to be there but I blacked out again.
“It feels like a blessing that I can’t remember the accident or what happened in the aftermath.
It makes it easier to live with. You hear of people coming home from the army who suffer
from flashbacks and PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder). They just can’t get stuff out of
their heads. I know it would affect me massively if I had those images in my head.”
Liverpool Football Club rallied in support of Highdale. They had him transferred from
Whiston Hospital to the private Sefton Suite in Fazakerley.
Carragher was among those to pay him a visit, while Gerrard phoned and invited him down to
Melwood with his family for a meal when he was well enough.
“That was a massive boost — sitting there with my hero for a few hours,” he says. “You think
he’s a superstar but when you actually meet him, you realise he’s just one of us.
“Looking at the pic I had taken with Stevie at Melwood (below), I couldn’t have been any
more than seven stone. I’d lost a lot of weight. I was ten-and-a half stone before the accident.
I look ill.
“Liverpool were playing Arsenal in the quarter-finals of the Champions League a few days
after the accident and my agent, Peter McIntosh from Stella Group, took my dad to that game
with Joe Hart, who Peter looked after as well. Everyone we knew rallied round. That’s what
Halewood is like — it’s only a small place but people look out for each other.
“I was in hospital for about six weeks and Liverpool really looked after me. I kept saying to
the staff how sore my neck was but they said it was just whiplash. The club physio insisted
that they did an X-ray and it turned out that I’d fractured my neck in two different places. I
had to have an operation for it to be pinned and plated.
“At that stage I didn’t know how bad my knee was. I’d lost a kidney but I still thought I’d be
back in training before too long.”
Liverpool sent Highdale to London to see top knee surgeon Andy Williams, who has operated
on a host of elite sports stars. The severity of the damage was soon laid bare.
“Andy said to me from the start: ‘Don’t ever think about playing football again. What I’m
here for is to get you back to living your every day life — that’s what matters to me.’
“Barry Ferguson came out as I was waiting to go in to see him. The second time I saw Shaun
Wright-Phillips there. I had an operation where Andy took part of the hamstring out of my left
leg and used it to create a ligament in my right knee. He did an unbelievable job. What a man.
“I went back to the academy and all I could do initially was some upper body weights. Then I
was on the bike in the gym. I kept smashing every target they gave me. My mindset was I
wasn’t going to let anyone tell me that I couldn’t do something. If I really can’t do something
then I’ll only accept that once I’ve given it everything I’ve got.”
The rehab went on for two years. He was a spectator when Liverpool lost the final of the FA
Youth Cup to Arsenal 6-2 on aggregate in May 2009.
“That was my team and we got battered,” he adds. “Jack Wilshere ran the show. By then he
was flying with the first team. I wondered if he would recognise me but he was straight over
for a chat after. Staying down a year at the academy was how I got to know Jon Flanagan. We
clicked and we’ve been good friends ever since.”
In the spring of 2010, Highdale made his Liverpool comeback but his joy proved to be
shortlived.
“We were playing Crewe in a friendly at Kirkby and my name was up there on the teamsheet.
It was really emotional. I got on for the last 25 minutes and did OK,” he says. “By then
Frankie (McParland) was the academy director and one day I had a meeting with him and
Dave Galley, the physio. I was fit and loving playing again.
“Frankie asked Dave where I was at and Dave said: ‘He’s not going to be able to do it.’ I
wasn’t happy at the time but Dave explained: ‘It’s not about now, it’s about five to 10 years
time, your knee is that knackered.’
“Frankie told me to forget about football. He said they’d provide a reference for how good I
was before the accident when it came to the compensation. Me being me, I still didn’t want to
give up.”
Highdale had loan spells at Oldham Athletic and Welsh outfit Newtown and various trials at
Football League clubs before officially leaving Liverpool in 2011. He then signed for non-
league Vauxhall Motors.
“After Oldham, I went to MK Dons for a bit where Paul Ince was the manager. I knew him
from playing with his son Tom at Liverpool. I went to Huddersfield Town under Lee Clark
and then Accrington Stanley.
“But I couldn’t keep up with them. Everything was just too fast. It was frustrating because I
couldn’t do things that I used to be able to do. I just didn’t have the same kind of mobility in
my knee. I was never the fastest player but I was always fit. I lost a yard of pace and I just
couldn’t get it back.
“I decided to call it a day in terms of professional football. I played a couple of seasons for
Vauxhall and then went to Burscough. Then I kind of lost interest. I just couldn’t be bothered
with all the travelling for £70 per game.
“I decided I’d rather just play amateur football with my mates. I went to Old Xavs and then
finished with Aigburth People’s Hall. I gave up a few years ago. I couldn’t see the point in it
anymore. Sometimes playing against lads who just want to kick you. What do you get out of
that?
“I could get through games pain-free and make tackles, no problem. It was the day after when
I had issues. I miss playing but I only real really miss the standard I used to play at. Being in
that environment – the buzz, the immaculate pitches.
“What I enjoy now is kicking a ball around with my sister Jess’ little boy. My nephew Ethan
is only six but he’s just got a trial at Liverpool and I’m giving him advice.”
Once Highdale had belatedly accepted that his hopes of a professional career were over, he
was able to pursue compensation. Solicitor Catherine Leech from Manchester law firm
Pannone took on the case and called on more than 30 witnesses, including Gerrard, Carragher,
Wilshere, Heighway, Ablett, Ince, Spearing and Kelly. They all described him as being one of
the biggest talents of his generation and on course to break into the first-team squad.
The insurers of the car he was travelling in at the time of the accident paid out £4 million in
2013. The first thing he did was clear the family debts accrued over a difficult five-year
period and bought parents Derek and Lindzi a new house and car.
“The things that my former team-mates and coaches wrote about me helped a lot. It was nice
to know that I was pretty well respected in the football world and not a bad player,” he says.
“When the money came through, I didn’t go out and buy myself a Lamborghini which I could
have easily done. I never rubbed it in anyone’s face or became big time.
“I’d been used to earning £50 per day labouring for my grandad’s landscaping business. I’d
done a year working in the factory on the new Land Rovers.
“My mum and dad had taken out loans and credit cards just for me to live so sorting things
out for them was my priority. They had been through a lot.
“I knew it wouldn’t last forever so that’s why I opened up by own business. I’ve gone into
property development with a business partner and I’ve got a stake in five kids’ day nurseries.”
In 2016 there was another life-changing experience. Out of the blue, he was asked if he would
be interested in potentially joining England’s cerebral palsy football team. A trip to St
George’s Park ultimately led to him being picked to represent Great Britain at the 2016
Paralympics in Rio.
“I had to be assessed by the doctors to see if I qualified,” he says. “They knew I’d had a bleed
on the brain. When I was getting back fit with Liverpool, when I did weights with my left
hand my right hand would curl. My physio would always ask me why I was doing it and I
didn’t know. It turns out that’s cerebral palsy in your brain. When you get tired, your hand
starts to curl.
“I went down for these tests. He’d have his finger out in front of me and I’d have to touch my
nose and then touch his finger. Then he’d move his finger and I couldn’t find it to touch it.
“He said I was showing signs of it so I started training with England. To get classified for Rio
I had to go to an international assessment in Portugal. They class you from five to eight, eight
being the least impaired. It was touch and go whether I’d qualify but I got an eight so I could
go to the Paralympics.
“The first game against Brazil was a 15,000 sell-out. We didn’t win a medal but the whole
trip was a massive eye opener. It was amazing to see how people improvise with their lives. I
saw a guy playing PlayStation who had no arms, he was just playing with his stumps.
“The people there were so happy, getting up every day and making the absolute best of the
difficulties they’ve had to face in life. Something like that gives you a different perspective
and outlook. You think to yourself: ‘What am I moaning for?’”
Happy and settled with girlfriend Sarah, Highdale is in a good place. His love for Liverpool
FC is undimmed. He’s a season-ticket holder in block 202 of the Kop. He’s not consumed by
feelings of bitterness or anger about what might have been.
“I’m just a fan like everyone else,” he says. “Winning the title after so many years was
brilliant. Jurgen Klopp has done a fantastic job.
“When Jordan Henderson lifted the trophy, I was in my mum’s, shouting and celebrating with
my dad. It’s great to see what Jordan has gone on to achieve. He deserved to be Footballer of
the Year. It’s not just his performances, it’s captaining a squad full of superstars. You can tell
that they all respect him massively.
“Over the years I’ve seen players go on to do really well at the highest level who I knew I was
better than. There’s a bit of disappointment but it also makes me happy to think I would have
done it. I’m not saying I definitely would have played for Liverpool but I know I would have
made a decent living out of the game.
“I’ve never had any feelings of jealousy towards anyone. If feelings like that were ever going
to affect me it would have happened when Jon Flanagan, my best mate, was playing for
Liverpool. I was always made up for him.
“These days we play golf together. Flanno plays off 11 and I’m off 18 at the minute. I shot 87
the other day which is my best yet. I feel good. I go to the gym regularly and see a personal
trainer. I lost a lot of movement in my ankle so every morning I walk on my tiptoes for five
minutes until it warms up and I can put my heel down. Apart from that, I’m fine.”
Highdale has been warned that he’s likely to suffer from arthritis in his neck and ankle in later
life. But he has long since learnt not to waste time worrying about what might happen.
“There’s so much I want to do,” he adds. “I want to travel the world and build up the business
a lot more before starting a family of my own.
“I’m hoping for a big return on the investments I’ve made so that in the next three to four
years I can say to my parents: ‘Don’t work, buy a place abroad and potter about between here
and Spain or wherever.’
“I’m a great believer that things happen for a reason. Football wasn’t meant to be for me. I
had to dust myself off and go down a different path.
“What I’ve been through has taught me to never take anything for granted. I had the world at
my feet at one stage. Suddenly, it was gone.
“It makes you realise how much you have to appreciate what you’ve got in life because it can
get taken away from you so fast. You have to enjoy every single moment.”