Former NRL star Alex McKinnon welcomes baby girl - four years after terrible accident

Former NRL star Alex McKinnon has welcomed a baby girl with his wife Teigan.

The happy news comes just four years after the star player was left unable to walk after a tackle during a game left him as a quadriplegic.

Taking to Instagram, the former Newcastle Knights forward and his partner shared shared their happy news and revealed the name they have given their bundle of fun.

‘When 2 became 3. Harriet Anne Mckinnon. 7-10-18,’ Teigan wrote alongside an adorable photo of the new family member.

The birth of the couple’s little girl came the day before the pair’s first wedding anniversary.

‘Happy Anniversary @teiganmckinnon ❤,’ a clearly delighted Alex wrote on Instagram.

Four years ago the future looked bleak for 26-year-old after a horror accident on the football field left the NRL star with a broken neck.

He was critically injured at Melbourne's AAMI Park - his neck broken by a crunching tackle that shattered his career and left him quadriplegic.

As he fought for his life at The Alfred Hospital in Melbourne, his teen sweetheart Teigan kept a bedside vigil.

It was touch and go, but with a fierce determination to live, Alex pulled through. He is still fighting to walk.

He had a lot to live for, and not wanting to waste a moment, he proposed to Teigan just weeks after waking from an induced coma.

Sharing their fairytale wedding exclusively with New Idea last year, Alex defied the odds again when he got up from his wheelchair and stood throughout the wedding.

'I was pretty shocked to tell you the truth. I couldn't believe Alex stood for all that time,' Teigan told New Idea.

'It was lovely to be able to look him in the eye, rather than looking down at him in his wheelchair. It just made the ceremony that much more intimate. We started crying every time we caught each other's eye. It was beautiful.'

Taking to Instagram to spread the word that they were expecting their first baby, the happy couple posed with a picture of the ultrasound and wrote a caption, saying:

‘So overwhelmed with joy to finally announce baby McKinnon is coming soon.’

This story first appeared on New Idea