A Manchester City fan has suffered horrific injuries in Spain that have left him with a suspected a bleed on the brain.
25-year-old father of two Stephen Hunt headed out to Madrid without a ticket to watch City's Champions League semi-final in a bar. He travelled out to meet some friends, who did have tickets, but his family fear he was set upon in the Spanish capital.
Stephen requires surgery after sustaining a suspected bleed on the brain as well as fractured eye socket, broken nose and broken jaw. His mother, Dawn Reid, claims he had no recollection of how he sustained his injuries before waking up in hospital. She will travel out to Madrid on Friday morning after learning of her son's condition.
She told the MEN : "We heard nothing from 11.30pm to 3.30am. I rang the consulate, I rang the police, I rang everywhere, I rang all the hospitals in Madrid trying to find anything, but it was all in Spanish and I couldn't understand them. Stephen rang me at 3.30am crying saying 'I'm in hospital, I've got a bleed on my brain, they are taking me to theatre'. As a mum I was hysterical at this point."
Surgery to treat Stephen's suspected bleed on the brain has been put on hold as they await the results of a further CT scan. He is due to undergo surgery tomorrow for his other injuries.
Dawn added: "My head's just been in a whirlwind, my phone's not stopped all day. I don't even know how I'm functioning. I don't know how I feel, I just feel like I need to be there. I'm one of the lucky ones, my son's still alive. There's people out there who don't make it, it could have been worse. It's just a scary thought."
Stephen runs his own fencing business and is engaged, has posted on Facebook thanking people for their support and said he just wanted to come home.
Dawn opened up on further as she said: "He said all he remembers is leaving the pub and that was it, he woke up at in the hospital. He was oblivious, he doesn't know what has happened. They have given him a really good kicking. It's scandalous, I feel sick. He is mumbling because he can't move his mouth to speak, he's in a lot of pain.
"I could understand if it was a gang of lads, like a football gang. But it was just a lad on his own, walking back to his hotel, vulnerable and on his own. He's not got a fight in him, he's passive, he's more of a happy go lucky person, he'll have a laugh, he'll get on karaoke and sing away. That's his personality, he's not got anything nasty or vicious in him."
