A fund raising effort raised £1,000 in a little over 24 hours to support a local football club manager who was badly injured in what his brother described as a “vicious challenge”.

Robb Alexander from near King’s Lynn is the player manager of Wimblington Reserves who were winning 5-1 against Harston Bostocks Reserves.

Brother Matty said: “Unfortunately he was on the receiving end of a vicious challenge that left him with a broken leg (in three places) a dislocated ankle and bad ligament damage.

“He’s due an operation as I’m writing this to fuse it together with metal plates.”

Matty said his brother would be out of work for the foreseeable future “not even able to walk on it for at least six weeks. Not the best scenario at such an expensive time of year.”

He added:” He has a beautiful family, a wife, two boys and a little girl. I would love for them to be able to still receive the gifts they deserve and also cover his living expenses while he gets himself sorted.”

Matty has set up a GoFundMe page with the aim of raising £1,000 and hit the target much sooner than he even dared think.

“It’s been just over one day and we have already gone past the £1,000 target,” he said.

“The response has been incredible.”

Robb had surgery yesterday and his family are awaiting the outcome.

Unfortunately, said Matty, the doctors have already told Robb he will never be able to play football again.

In a statement posted on the Wimblington FC Facebook page the club explained how the game was abandoned with 10 minutes to go.

The club described injuries to Robb as “serious” and said everyone at the club wished him the best very best “and our thoughts are with him.

“Robb is a decent bloke,” said the statement. “The result is not important it’s the player/manager we are concerned about.”

Matt thanked the Cambs Times for responding “so quickly” to share the appeal and the family was grateful for the support of the football community.

One comment on gofundme , accompanying a donation, said: “It was a horrible challenge and Robb doesn’t deserve for his family to lose out on a good Christmas.”

Another simply wrote: “I donated because this family means an awful lot to me.”