A FOOTBALL fan left brain damaged and unable to walk after being attacked is home from hospital, almost a year to the day since being left for dead in a Southend street.

Cambridge United fan Simon Dobbin, 43, of Mildenhall, Suffolk, was viciously attacked outside The Railway Tavern, in East Street, as he walked back to Prittlewell Station following his side’s 0-0 draw with Southend United on Saturday, March 21, last year.

After being taken to Southend Hospital in a coma he was transferred to Bury St Edmunds and then Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge, before moving to a specialist neurological rehabilitation centre at the Colman Hospital, in Norwich.

Yesterday , after almost a year in hospitals, Simon came home to his wife Nicole and their 17-year-old daughter Emily.

Nicole said: “I’m over the moon, I’m so excited to have him home. It has been the toughest year of my life, a nightmare. Today it does not seem like it was a year ago, it has gone really quickly, but while we have been going through it, it has been tough.

“I was very emotional when he came through the door, he left nearly a year ago and has not been home since.

“Emily is excited too but understandably a little apprehensive, it is not every day your dad comes home and requires full time care.”

Simon’s condition initially improved when he moved to the neurological centre in August, but he has since regressed and is currently only able to say the word “yes”.

He cannot walk or use his hands and while Nicole is a professional carer herself with more than 20 years’ experience in a residential home, the family will have a live-in carer.

Nicole is hopeful is receiving a £30,000 grant from the state to help with the conversion of her home into a disabled-friendly environment but friends and family are also fundraising to ensure they want for nothing.

She added: “I am 99 per cent sure Simon will talk and improve now he’s home, just being in his own home.

“We need to make a bedroom and wet room for him downstairs as for now we’ve just had to curtained off the dining room and put his special bed in there.

“The surveyor has said it might cost anything up to £50,000 for the work we want doing to anything over £30,000 we have to fund ourselves and even the grant could take a year to 18 months to come through.”

Craig Watt, who lives in Leigh, a lifelong friend of Nicole, has organised a 12-mile walk to raise funds for the family this Saturday, marking the first anniversary of the attack.

And Dan Wiseman, 14, a fellow Cambridge United fan, was so moved by Simon’s story he will cycle 35 miles to his team’s home game with Yeovil on Saturday.

To donate to their causes visit crowdfunding.justgiving.com/Craig-watt and www.gofundme.com/k6rhj9y4 respectively.

POLICE YET TO MAKE TO CHARGE ANYONE

AS the anniversary of the attack approaches police have yet to bring any charges against any of the 17 people arrested.

One man is still on police bail, three have been released and face no further action, while the remaining 13 have been released from bail but reports have been sent to the Crown Prosecution Service for their consideration.

Simon Dobbin was attacked more than two hours after the game between Southend United and Cambridge United, at nearby Roots Hall, had finished.

He remained in Southend to watch the Six Nations rugby before heading down East Street towards Prittlewell station to begin his journey back to Suffolk.

His wife, Nicole, is appealing for whoever attacked her husband to be brought to justice.

She said: “It has been a slow process and in the past year, since what happened, we’ve been living through this while whoever did it has been walking the streets, free.

“I want whoever did this to be made an example of so that things like this never happen again and other families don’t have to go through what we’re going through.”