Scotland's Thom Evans has been forced to quit professional rugby on the advice of doctors following a serious spinal injury that left him fearing he would never walk again.

Evans collided with the Wales full-back Lee Byrne during Scotland's dramatic defeat at the Millennium Stadium in this year's Six Nations. He has described the impact as "like being hit by a sniper's bullet" and severely damaged two vertebrae in the accident which required emergency spinal surgery and saw the winger spend a week in a Cardiff hospital before being flown back to Glasgow.

Evans credits the quick actions of the Scotland team doctor James Robson with preventing permanent paralysis and Evans was kept motionless on the field for 10 minutes before being moved after the tackle.

"I have watched the incident that led to my injury a few times and it did not look that bad. But it was one of these situations where I found I could not move at the time and was in a massive amount of shock. I owe my life to Dr James Robson for the way he acted," Evans told the Daily Mail.

Evans had hoped to make a full recovery but has now accepted the advice of medical professionals that the risk of further injury is too great. Evans won 10 caps in a two-year international career and played alongside his brother, Max, for Scotland.

Among the many get-well messages Evans received while recuperating was a video note from Andy Murray and the 25-year-old has spent this week at Wimbledon cheering Murray on before travelling to Portugal where his father works as a golf professional.

"I am improving and, although I can't play golf for another two months, I am looking forward to going back to whacking a golf ball," Evans said.