KENDAL'S star centre Ian Voortman wasplastered for Christmas Day...but strictly in a medical sense afterbreaking his right leg in two places during the match at Newbury onSaturday.

Cape Town-born Voortman, aged 26, was taken to theRoyal Berkshire Hospital on Saturday, where he was kept inovernight.

He took the blow on the shinbone and broke both thetibia and fibula.

It was a relatively clean break and did notneed pinning thanks mainly to the prompt attention he received on thepitch.

Kendal's Director of Rugby Chris Hayton and hisdaughter Bev, who is Ian's girlfriend, drove down to collect him fromhospital on Christmas Eve and brought him back to Kendal thatevening.

Ian, 26, who was vote the Jewson League's player ofthe year in Kendal's promotion winning season, said from his flat in thetown:" I'm feeling a lot better and have just stopped taking thepainkillers.

"There was two of us trying the kick the ballrunning in from different directions and our legs just met - it was acomplete accident with no malice whatsoever.

"It was a shockto look down and see what had happened, but Newbury had excellent medicalfacilities and they were great and did everything they could tohelp."

Voortman had three shots of morphine to ease the painwhile it took the ambulance 40 minutes to come from Reading before makinga high-speed return trip with alarms blaring and lightsflashing.

He said:"I'm being positive about it and will playagain, but realistically I know that I won't be back thisseason.

Voortman said he would be staying in the country forat least two months to finish an IT course at Kendal College and continuehis part-time job as an administrator at ScottishProvident.