For Prospect striker John Richmond, Sunday's FA Cup final against North Village at the National Sports Centre was supposed to be a dream-come-true.

Instead, it quickly turned into a nightmare.

Just 14 minutes into the grand finale of the local soccer season, Richmond found himself writhing in agony after clashing with Village goalkeeper Zane Hendrickson.

His right leg fractured, he was stretchered off the field and whisked to hospital by ambulance.

"I was over the moon when we found out that we would be playing in the final," recalled Richmond from his hospital bed yesterday. "I couldn't wait to get up there (on the `carpet') and actually play.

"And then for it to be all over after 14 minutes was certainly a big letdown. There was no score at the time when I got the injury and everything still left to play for. And when I was on the sideline that's when we actually went 1-0 down. But I was still looking to come back on."

Village went on to score a convincing 5-1 victory.

The striker can clearly remember Sunday's incident that brought a premature end to his big day.

"Zane came out pretty hard and it was a 50-50 ball which entitled him to also go for it," he said. "We basically got there at the same time and he just hit the side of my shin pad which was the most unprotected side. There was quite a lot of power at impact but it was certainly nothing malicious on his (Hendrickson's) part. He was entitled to go for the ball just as I was."

After the collision, Richmond, 31, lay in pain on the touchline as he was initially attended to by his team's medic before eventually being taken by ambulance to the hospital where it was discovered that he had suffered a fracture of his right tibia.

"It was then that I finally realised that the injury was much worse than I first suspected," he said. "It bruised up really quickly but I didn't feel a whole lot of pain. I started telling the coach (David Furbert) not to put the sub on yet."

Richmond is a former Devonshire Colts player, having come up through the club's junior ranks. Prior to Sunday's cup final, his only other visit to the National Stadium came as a bantam player with Colts.

"I started playing for Colts until I went overseas to university. And my first time playing up on the carpet was during a cup final when I was playing in the Bantam division," said Richmond.

However, despite Sunday's setback, the Prospect poacher has vowed to make a speedy return to his team's line-up next season.

"I will be back for sure," he declared. "I don't think that I am done playing football. Obviously yesterday was a huge disappointment for me but I am just going to get back on the bike and try and see if I can do it again next year."

For the moment, though, Richmond is confined to a hospital bed and still facing the possibility of having additional surgery to repair his damaged leg.