THE ambulance service has apologised after a Halstead footballer had to wait 90 minutes for the service to reach him after glass pierced his eyeball.

Friends of Ricky Spriggs, 22, were left holding his eye open to prevent the shards doing any more damage after a changing room window was smashed following a football match between Halstead Town and Stowmarket Town at the club’s grounds in Rosemary Lane.

There were fears that Ricky, the captain of the Halstead team, might lose the sight in his eye, but luckily surgeons were able to remove the glass and put six stitches in his eyeball.

However, Ricky and other members of the football team expressed their dismay at the 90 minute wait for the ambulance.

An East of England Ambulance spokesman has now apologised for the wait.

He said: “We would like to apologise to the patient for the wait and any distress this may have caused.

“We received a call on April 16 at 4.58pm to reports of a man suffering from a facial injury and based on the information provided by the caller, it was coded as a ‘green’ serious but not life-threatening call which requires an ambulance response within 30 minutes.

“Unfortunately, due to the high level of demand we were under that day we were able to get an ambulance on scene at 6.25pm.

“After receiving treatment at the scene, he was then taken to Broomfield Hospital for further treatment.

“We hope that he is better soon and would urge either him or his family to contact us if they have any further questions or concerns.”

Ricky, a PE teacher at Raven’s Academy, will be unable to play the rest of the season’s games