Hockey and policing dreams put on hold for N.B teen injured in N.S. hockey league

A New Brunswick hockey player whose eye was severely damaged during a recent game in the Nova Scotia Junior Hockey League says he's trying to stay positive, even as the injury keeps him from the sport he loves and his prospective career.

Riverview, N.B.'s Matt Christie, 19, a forward with the Cumberland County Blues, was playing a game in Port Hawkesbury, N.S., in early December when his life changed in an instant.

"I was just going around the net and there was a guy chasing me and he went to lift my stick ... and it just went up under the visor and caught me right in the eye," he told CBC News on Sunday.

Christie said there was nothing he could have done differently.

'I thought I had lost my eye'

"It was just crazy," he said. "I just dropped to the ice and the amount of blood that I [saw]. There was blood in my visor. The trainer came out on the ice. There was paramedics there waiting and he told them to come on on the ice. I thought I had lost my eye, because he was screaming at the paramedics."

With intense pain in his left eye, Christie was taken by ambulance to St. Martha's Regional Hospital in Antigonish, then the Moncton Hospital.

He needed stitches above and below the eye. His lens detached, and he has a macular hole — a break in the centre of the eye which causes distorted vision. He's since developed glaucoma.

Christie has had one surgery so far, in early January, with more to come. His depth perception is "all messed up," and he can only see blurry movement with the damaged eye.

'I hope I can see again'

The best prognosis he's received was from a Halifax doctor who said the eye might return to 50 per cent of what it was.

"It was nuts," he said. When he first heard how much damage had been done he remembered feeling, "just in shock. I hope I can see again. Everything that's been leading up to my life so far could be gone."

Aside from playing in the league, Christie said he was on the prospects list to be a referee in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League.

And on top of that, the injury could keep him from becoming a police officer. He had completed a policing course at Eastern College in November.

"To be in policing you have to have a certain amount of vision, and right now it's not looking very good," he said.

'Just trying to stay positive'

Christie said his family and teammates have been very supportive.

"I've been trying to keep positive and stuff like that, but it is hard at times," he said. "You just want to get up and do stuff. I haven't been able to see my friends much. If I go out too long, the light hurts my eyes."

He already coaches with his uncle, and may continue to pursue that.

Christie said the accident made him realize that anything can happen in a split second. "I never would have thought that it would cause that much damage. Nothing you can really do, I guess."

He said all he can do is keep a good outlook and see what happens.

"Just trying to stay positive and not get down on myself, but it's not the easiest thing," he said.