Winter Olympic speed skater Brendan Corey was told that he had suffered an injury often associated with brutal car crashes when his throat was sliced open during a freak accident. The Canadian-born Australian was participating in a 1000m quarter-final at the World Championships in Beijing when the accident occurred, with China’s Liu Shaoang overbalancing and catching Corey’s neck with his skate as he crashed to the ice head first.

The Melbourne-based star followed Liu across the arena, clutching at his neck, before he crashed into a barrier by the side of the rink. Reflecting on the incident with the Wide World Of Sports, Corey said: “In the moment it was quite scary. I basically laid with my hand tightly pressed against my neck until I was in the hospital.”

After being rushed to hospital for treatment, doctors found that Corey had sustained two lacerations and a fractured thyroid cartilage, also known as the Adam’s apple. While six stitches were thankfully enough to treat the injury, a doctor in his homeland explained just how lucky Corey had been with the placement of the cuts.

The Winter Olympian explained: “He said the only other time he’s seen that injury is in car crashes when someone hits their neck on the steering wheel. But then they end up dead anyways from the crash. He couldn’t believe what had happened when he saw the photos and the X-rays and what not.”

He continued: “Personally, I’d never seen that sort of injury happen before. It was really a freak incident because the blades aren’t typically going up that high.

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“My competitor made a pretty big mistake on his own. It was a tight pack there towards the end of the race, and I found myself in the wrong place at that moment.”

On the road to recovery, Corey explained that he could not speak for around three weeks and had to move onto a specialised liquid diet due to the fracture. However, that’s not to say that the diet alleviated any pain, with the 29-year-old citing that it would take him around an hour to drink a glass of juice through agony.

It comes as Corey is set to represent Australia in the 500m, 1000m and 1500m short track speed skating events of the Milano-Cortina Winter Games after fully recovering physically and mentally. Speaking ahead of the Games, he said: “I’d say I’m recovered from it now.

“I mean, part of the risk I take every time I step out on the ice is something could happen, you know? We all have blades strapped to our feet. It’s not something I even think about anymore when I’m skating. When I get on the ice for a race, I’m fully focused on the race and not dwelling on, ‘Oh, am I going to get cut in the neck again?’

“I would say this injury has made me stronger as a person. It’s been tough.”