A YOUNG footballer whose career was destroyed following an altercation in Brentwood last year says he has "lost faith in the justice system" after police closed the case.
Nicky Morgan, 26, says he is "disgusted" at the way police have handled the investigation into an incident on October 28, 2011, which left him temporarily paralysed.
Speaking about the case being dropped, he told the Gazette: "It's absolutely gutting and it could not have happened at a worse time, yesterday (Sunday) was exactly one year after my incident.
"I have lost faith in the justice system and everything. To go through what I have gone through and not to get any justice, it's been quite a big blow."
The Gazette reported last year how Mr Morgan, a goalkeeper for Billericay Town Football Club, suffered spinal injuries in the incident.
He was knocked to the ground after getting involved in a ten-man brawl in William Hunter Way, to the rear of the Sugar Hut nightclub.
Police at the time said he may have been targeted after helping security staff break up a fight inside the celebrity night spot.
In December police arrested a 33-year-old man from Sittingbourne, Kent, in connection with the incident, but he has since been released without charge.
Mr Morgan added: "I am not happy with the police, the way they have dealt with the whole situation, they were hardly in contact with us.
"I don't feel that they dealt with it the way they should.
"They led us along this year saying we have got hope, then they kept quiet and in the last month, we begin to hear that things had changed."
Mr Morgan, from Loughton, once feared he may never walk again. Although he is back on his feet, he admits "deep down" that he will never play football again.
He said the incident, which has left him with pains, spasms and a partial loss of feeling from the neck down, has "turned my whole life upside down".
"It's soul-destroying and it rips my heart out when I hear about other people taking about football.
"I have lost my football, lost my job, lost the house that I was in, and now I am starting again."
Mr Morgan did however thank those who had supported him during his recovery.
A spokesman for Essex Police said: "The Crown Prosecution Service has accepted that there was no offence after extensive investigations showed that the injury was caused in an accidental fall."
