NUMBED by painkillers, it will be a long time before Curtis Hook can use his mangled fingers again.But today a smile brightens his young face as he hugs a smart new football – a present from the Evening Star.

By Tracey Sparling

NUMBED by painkillers, it will be a long time before Curtis Hook can use his mangled fingers again.

But today a smile brightens his young face as he hugs a smart new football – a present from the Evening Star.

"I might send it to Ipswich Town to see if the players will sign it," said Curtis, 14.

The football fan faces months of agonising treatment, after almost slicing two fingers off in a sanding machine on work experience at Classic Design Furniture in Great Blakenham.

Curtis' left hand got stuck in a belt while he worked on wood unsupervised.

When he managed to extract it, the middle finger of his left hand had the end-third hanging off, while the soft underside of his ring finger had been torn off.

Right-handed Curtis spent two hours in surgery while his finger was repaired.

Specialists at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital told him he would be scarred for life and will have to undergo physiotherapy to regain the correct use of the hand.

"I can't feel it now," said the Claydon High School pupil as he spent the day off school, with his mum Lorraine as she worked at Snippets hair salon in Clapgate Lane, Ipswich.

"He's on painkillers," she explained.

"But it won't stop him for long – he even rode his bike when he had an arm in plaster!

"I have to keep an eye on him and my boss, Lisa Scurrell, has been great in letting him come in with me.

"We're watching his hand doesn't swell up. He has to go back to hospital on Tuesday to have his dressings changed and try physiotherapy, and the stitches come out in just over a week at Norwich. Then it will be physiotherapy at Ipswich."

She and Curtis' dad, Ivan, of Clapgate Lane, said they would be planning legal action against the company after the accident on Tuesday.

At one stage, he and his parents thought Curtis would have to have part of his finger amputated after the accident with the sanding machine while on work experience.