Mike Williams is so badly injured in a work accident that he is already wrongly declared dead. According to his father, the ex-NFL pro is paralysed. His daughter’s mother describes a visit to the hospital.

As a wide receiver Mike Williams took on NFL defensive stars, now the 36-year-old is fighting for his life. As a result of a serious work-related accident on September 1, the former fourth-round pick is in intensive care at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Tampa.

After reports had already emerged that Williams had succumbed to his injuries, the mother of his eight-year-old daughter has now spoken out, as the “Tampa Bay Times” reports.

According to Tierney Lyle, Williams is on life support. When she visited him on Wednesday afternoon, she said, he was unresponsive for most of the time. “

“He was asleep when we came in and woke up when he heard our voices and his daughter’s voice,” Lyle reportedly explained outside the hospital. “And he was looking around and blinking and crying, but he couldn’t move.”

She is further reported to have stressed that she believes the plan is to take Williams off life support. But this, she said, had not yet been done.

Clinic not releasing info on Williams’ condition

According to the “Washington Post”, a spokesman for the clinic said no further details about Williams’ condition could be released. The ex-NFL pro was reportedly hit by a steel beam at a construction site.

Meanwhile, donations are being collected on the website “gofundme.com” so that Williams’ father Wendell Mohammad, who lives and works in Dallas, can assist his son in Tampa. Within two days, almost 5,000 US dollars were collected.

Mohammad also commented on his son’s exact injuries. According to the report, the steel beam fell on the head of the former receiver and caused severe brain damage. The spine was also affected. Williams is paralysed from the waist down and on his right arm.

Because the diaphragm had pressed on the lungs, his son had also suffered from considerable breathing difficulties. In addition, the lungs had filled with water. Thanks to the doctors’ efforts, however, these problems have now been resolved, Mohammad wrote earlier this week.

Williams played for the Buccaneers and the Bills

In the NFL, Williams played from 2010 to 2013 for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who selected him as the 101st draft pick. Although he signed a new six-year, $40.25 million contract in Florida in the summer of 2013, Williams was traded to the Buffalo Bills for a sixth-round pick in 2014, returning home. However, in December, during the current season, he was shown the door.

Another setback followed, as the NFL suspended Williams for the first six weeks of the 2015 season. Before the 2016 season, he joined the Kansas City Chiefs, but was released in August. According to Pro Football Reference, he totalled 223 receptions for 3089 yards including 26 touchdowns in 63 NFL appearances.