Blackburn's Ryan Nelsen family safe after earthquake

Blackburn Rovers defender Ryan Nelsen was relieved to hear his sister had given birth in his native New Zealand following Tuesday's devastating earthquake in Christchurch.
Nelsen said his sister Stephanie Martin, who was 37 weeks pregnant, went into labour after being "knocked over" by the quake, which killed 98 people and left more than 220 people missing.
The New Zealand captain, who was born in Christchurch, sent BBC Sport a text saying: "Family and friends all ok" and confirmed his sister had given birth to a son.
Nelsen and wife Monica learned about the earthquake while at home in Cheshire and the Blackburn club captain had to wait anxiously for news of his sister, while at Rovers' training ground on Wednesday.
He told New Zealand newspaper The Dominion Post: "Monica checked the telephone for messages and said 'Oh, my God'. We turned on CNN and tried to make phone calls [to Christchurch] but we couldn't get through for ages.


"It was such a relief to get that text from mum to say everything was OK.
It was an incredible feeling of helplessness. It was horrible. It's a weird feeling.
I said to my wife, 'I've been away from home for 14 or 15 years, and you get homesick, but I've never felt that I wanted to be back in Christchurch as much as I did [on Wednesday]'. I just wanted to be there for my family and friends."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/9406453.stm

Makes you realise that sometimes there are more important things than football and petty rivalry.

 

good for him