A FORMER rugby player who broke his neck in a scrum says he still loves the game, despite having spent ten years fighting for justice following his injury.

Steven Cox, who was left paralysed and needing a wheelchair following the horrific injury in January 2006, is campaigning for the creation of a new sports injury watchdog.

But the former Durham University St Chad’s College tighthead prop said: “I enjoyed playing rugby. I still enjoy watching it. I’m not anti-rugby now.

“We accept an element of risk but that’s because we believe governing bodies will do all that they can to mitigate that.

“We need to make sure when people have accidents playing sport – if something happens that injures a player or anyone else watching or refereeing – it is investigated so the governing bodies can stop it happening again.”

After his accident, Mr Cox, of North Shields, North Tyneside, sued the matchday referee and although the case did not go to court, he received a no-faults insurance payout.

He is unhappy at the response of the Rugby Football Union (RFU) and earlier this month, after his MP Alan Campbell raised his case in the House of Commons, Sports Minister Tracey Crouch promised him a meeting with RFU chief executive Ian Ritchie.

Although Mr Cox said he had little hope anything would come from such a meeting, he said: “I’d be very eager for it to go ahead. I’d be very pleased to meet him to see if something positive can come out of it all.

“The thing I’m trying to raise is that catastrophic injuries do not get investigated. Their (the RFU's) general response is usually about what they have or haven’t done for me in the past ten years.”

Mr Cox has also been promised a meeting with former Paralympian Baroness (Tanni) Grey-Thompson, who is conducting a review of the duty of care in sport.

In 2013, rugby changed how scrums work so that opposing teams "bind" before pushing against one another.

Mr Cox said such an approach might have protected him, but he could not be certain.

The RFU has said it takes all injuries extremely seriously and its Injured Players’ Foundation manages a Catastrophic Injury Surveillance programme based at Bath University that feeds into a global database managed by World Rugby.