The 39-year-old former rugby union player was left an incomplete quadriplegic when his neck was broken during a routine rucking drill at Apex Oval in March last year.

But ever since the day he was hooked up to tubes to help him breathe the father of two has confounded medical science with his sheer grit.

Six weeks ago he notched up another win, achieving his goal of walking out of the Moorong rehabilitation unit in Sydney and heading home.

“It was an awesome feeling landing at Dubbo Airport,” Mr Te-Whata said yesterday from Lourdes Hospital. “To finally make it this far - it is hard to explain the feeling. It was like the first time I was taken off life support, I rate it as high as that.”

In the weeks immediately following Mr Te-Whata’s injury, his condition was likened to wheelchair-bound Hollywood actor Christopher Reeve. But this was one script the rugby enthusiast refused to follow.

A few days before his ninth wedding anniversary last year, Mr Te-Whata astounded his medical team by wiggling his toes and moving his knees. “It’s a miracle I’m even talking to you today,” he quipped. “Spinal doctors worldwide are using this as a test case.”

Wife Pamela and children Taataau, 5, and Abigail, 2, have been with him every miraculous step of the way. “We always aimed for the very best. He said he would walk one day - absolutely,” Mrs Te-Whata said.

His much-loved Rhinos Rugby Club has also offered emotional and financial support.

It has organised the construction of a specially modified home in the Firgrove Estate - donations and volunteer labour are expected to halve costs - and paid for a rental property until the family can move into their new home.

“At one stage while he was in Sydney I asked Wilson if he would like to come home for a week,” Rhinos president Steve Davis recalled yesterday.

“He said to me ‘mate if I ever get over those Blue Mountains I don’t want to come back’. It hit me then just how much coming home meant to him.”

Injury aside, the young family also battled the collapse of insurance giant HIH and the expected loss of a $300,000 injury payout. The Te-Whatas have since reached a confidential agreement with the Australian Rugby Union for an undisclosed amount.

On Tuesday night Mr Te-Whata will head back to Apex Oval, relive the moments of that horrific accident and, finally, put a few of those demons to rest.

He also has a date with his old team to kick off the local derby between the Rhinos and Kangaroos on Saturday week. And there is even talk of him playing for the Australian quad rugby side. Like everything else he’ll take it one step at a time.