a game on Sunday.

But the veteran national team scrum half doesn't want anybody to blame the sport he has played and enjoyed for 23 of his 34 years.

"You have to put it down to fate,'' Correia said from his bed at King Edward VII Hospital yesterday. "If I wasn't hurt playing rugby, I'm sure it would've happened some other way. That's the way I look at it.'' Correia suffered a hairline fracture of his second vertebrae early in the second half of the Presidents' Cup, the annual opening game of the local season at National Sports Club.

He expects to remain in hospital until Wednesday but will have to wear a chin-to-chest brace for the next six weeks in order to immobilise the neck.

Correia, who has full movement and feeling in his extremities, said doctors had instructed him to "take it easy.'' They don't have to worry.

Correia said he was contemplating retirement before the season and Sunday's scare was enough to make the decision easier. "I've got a family to think about,'' said Correia of wife Therese and daughters Rachael, eight, and Amanda, three.

He will also be away from his job at C-Mart for about a week.

Correia vividly recalls the injury, from diving for a loose ball on the try line, to feeling his head twist inward in a collision with another player's knee, to hearing a loud crack in his neck, to laying on the ground motionless.

He was also fully aware of the risks posed by a neck injury.

"All of the players gathered around me and I just said `I'm just going to be laying here for a while, guys,''' Correia said.

Play was halted for about 25 minutes before Correia was transported by ambulance to hospital, where he was admitted that night.

Prior to Sunday, the most severe injury Correia had suffered was a broken bone in his wrist last year.

Despite the aches and pains, Correia acknowledged he would miss playing. He has many fond recollections, particularly of this year's World Cup qualifying run, which ended with a crushing defeat in Chile two weeks ago.

Correia, whose 38-year-old brother and fellow national team member, Scott, is also considering retirement, said he hoped to coach and help out with Island rugby in any way he could.

Like Correia, national team coach Peter Shillingford put the scare down to "an unfortunate accident'' that could happen to anybody in any physical activity.

"Obviously it's a contact sport and when there's no love lost (when two teams play each other) these things are going to happen,'' said Shillingford, who was at the match but did not see the injury take place.

Correia keeps himself very fit and trains hard, said Shillingford, adding that players must compete at full speed otherwise they put themselves at even greater risk.

END OF THE ROAD -- A frightening neck injury suffered in a game on Sunday has prompted national rugby squad veteran Andrew Correia (with ball) to call it quits.