Feeling alone, in the dark and fearing for his life or his ability to walk again, Dani van den Heuvel crawled through the smoke, glass and mangled chassis of a car crash last summer. Six months later he would be keeping goal for Leeds United once more, released from the purgatory of a road which has asked far too much of a 19-year-old.
While he was away with the Netherlands under-19 squad in June, van den Heuvel, three team-mates and one member of staff were heading back to their hotel in a car. Travelling down a main road, van den Heuvel says another driver was pulling out from a side road.
The driver in the players’ car had two choices: collide with the passenger side of the other vehicle or veer off-road and into a traffic pole. He would take the latter route and leave their car crushed on the roadside.
READ MORE: Ayling defuses angry outburst, Koch precaution, Gyabi prank on Leeds United day four in Spain
Van den Heuvel admits he was the unlucky one. While the other four passengers would collide with airbags, he was sat in the middle of the backseat with no such protection.
In the split-second before he blacked out, Van den Heuvel remembers worrying for his life, but he recalls little after that until waking up with the car wreckage around him. He said: “I was crawling out of the car myself, but after the impact I can’t remember anything.
“I wake up in the car, the car is smoking, beeping, there is glass everywhere. I remember my jaw was really painful. My neck just felt really stiff. It’s a scary experience. It’s terrifying.”
He added: “That quick moment, when everything goes dark, when I think back about it, it is just like an empty space. For a second, or I don’t know how long it was, but yes, [I] definitely [feared for my life].”
The goalkeeper was taken to hospital and remained there for a few days. He would be told he had two fractures in his jaw and, more worryingly, two fractures in his neck.
“That (thinking about his playing career) took me about a week,” he said. “You know, the first week it was really scary.
“I was really emotional. It did a lot of damage because you're scared of what might happen when you first hear about some fractures in your neck.
“The first thing you think about is being paralysed. So that was the first week, but after that they said you've got zero per cent chance of getting paralysed and that's the moment when your mentality switches.
“It's go time, to get a good, fast recovery and try to get back out on the pitch.”
Jaw surgery would follow and the very early prognosis was football may be an option again in six months’ time. It was a target Van den Heuvel wanted to beat and use as motivation, but it was a long road back.
Anyone who had closely followed Van den Heuvel’s Instagram profile prior to the collision would have recalled a happy, smiling, outgoing character with a regular presence. It faded away in the summer as he came to terms with the most traumatic experience of his life.
“I didn’t touch my phone for the first couple of days because I wanted to keep it down,” he said. “The important people knew about the accident, but I didn’t share any pictures.
“I’ve been off my Instagram for six months because I didn’t want anyone to see what was really going on at that time. Everything was still a bit unsure and I was a bit unstable at that time, but then everything went well and the recovery started going well.”
Indoor biking and light exercise while wearing a neck brace was early progress which impressed United’s medical team. Five-minute walks would become 10-minute walks and then five-minute runs would build and build from nothing.
After six to seven weeks in his homeland, he returned to the UK and was reunited with his team-mates, who had only just arrived back from their tour of Australia. It was the boost he needed.
“I was at home for six, seven weeks and then I flew back to England,” he said. “[The Leeds squad] came back from Australia so I came in and met all the new guys and it was great.
“It was so good for me to come back with the team, being around the boys it really helped me as well. They motivate you. Even people who've had long-term injuries talk you through it as well. It really helped.”
When it comes to long-term injuries, Adam Forshaw and Stuart Dallas have unenviable records in the Thorp Arch medical department. They became pillars for Van den Heuvel to lean on.
“I was in the gym with Forsh, I was with Stu,” he said. “We became gym buddies. We spent time in the gym together. You speak about stuff and you do stuff together in the gym, which is just focused on getting back to going out on the pitch.
“That is a good feeling. Not the feeling that you are all alone. That is how I felt in the car for a second. That’s why I said, when I got back into the club, you have got all the people around you, supporting you, it really helps you in your rehab.”
The major landmark the goalkeeper had been waiting for finally arrived in Spain this month. While he has spent this week with the first team in Oliva, he was with the under-21s last week and faced a virtually full-strength Valencia side behind closed doors.
While the 8-0 scoreline could have ordinarily got him down, the Dutchman was just overjoyed to be facing shots again and feeling those nerves again. The collision has transformed his perspective on life.
“The thing about playing football, as soon as you get on the pitch, you don’t think about anything,” he said. “Obviously the first couple of times I went back out on the pitch, my neck still felt a bit stiff, but it doesn’t change anything.
“I am still doing the things I used to do, I love to do, it doesn’t change anything. You appreciate it more.
“Not just football, but everything. If something like this happens, you start realising how grateful you need to be for everything that happens to you.
“All the people around you, how grateful I am now to all of them, even more now.”
While he is likely to always carry scars from such a horrifying experience, Van den Heuvel and his co-passengers have spoken at length together about the ordeal. There is no resentment for the driver on the goalkeeper’s part.
“I spoke with the boys as well, they all came to visit me,” he said. “We spoke about it as a group, shared our experiences with everyone who was in the car and that really helped as well.
“The driver was in shock, he felt a bit guilty as well, even though he couldn’t do anything about it. Because he was driving it, he felt guilty for me.
“I spoke to him and said listen you couldn’t do anything about it, everything is going to be okay. I have played with the boys since I was 14.
“That’s quite a long time and I’ve known them even longer from camps, I even played with Ajax with some of them, and always played with them in the national team. We have got a good bond and that really helped as well.”
Those of us listening to the teenager tell this story by the pitchside in Spain were quite taken aback by his confidence, clarity and bravery in reliving the experience. Van den Heuvel feels it’s important to talk about it and, if anything, it helps him find closure.
“For me, it was tough for the first two weeks, but I like to speak about it because it helps me,” he said. “I am not afraid in the car now.
“That is all good. I am a bit more careful in the car now. I am a bit more aware of the traffic around me.
“You trust people less around you because it wasn’t our fault. It was a terrifying experience.”
With Illan Meslier and Kristoffer Klaesson absent with illness, Van den Heuvel is set to be on the bench for Leeds at Elche on Thursday night. Playing or not, you’ll struggle to find him with anything other than a smile on his face.
READ NEXT:
'Maybe with me' Wilfried Gnonto shares Crysencio Summerville-Leeds United happiness theory
Leeds United still missing key ingredient in push to eradicate old Marcelo Bielsa habits
Wilfried Gnonto opens up on Jesse Marsch's 'not ready' Leeds United comments and proving him wrong
Koch discomfort, Summerville returns, Forshaw leads winners on Leeds United day three in Spain
Jack Harrison's eight-week Leeds United lay-off risk, playing injured and hidden causes critics miss
