Jacksonville Jaguars team member Richard Collier, who was shot 14 times in the Riverside area on September 2, has found out he will never play football again. During a news conference at Shands Jacksonville Medical Center on Monday, Dr. Andy Kerwin said Richard Collier is paralyzed from the waist down and his left leg amputated above the knee. The news conference was the first time any significant details of Collier’s condition were made known to the public since September 2nd, the day of the shooting.

Dr. Kerwin, Collier’s physician and an associate professor of surgery at the University of Florida, also stated that Richard Collier is “off all life support measures and is talking with his family and friends. His spirits are excellent and we expect him to be discharged soon.” He said Collier was shot in the right shoulder, back, left groin, left leg and right buttock and said the shooting is part of an “epidemic of gun violence” in Jacksonville.

One of the bullets struck Collier in his spinal cord, which resulted in the paralyzation. The wound in his leg caused a blood clot to develop in a major artery and stopped circulation to his foot. Several days after performing surgery to remove the clot, doctors realized the leg had to be amputated above the knee.

“He’s very fortunate to have survived these injuries,” Dr. Kerwin said. “Many patients that get extensive injuries like this don’t survive. . . . When you have such extensive injuries and you’re in shock and you need a lot of blood transfusions, your body sort of has to rally itself to fight and get better. It certainly helped a great deal to be a strong athlete.”