A Wairarapa football club is "heartbroken" after one of their first-team players was left critically injured after being hit by a vehicle yesterday morning.
William Newton, who is in his early twenties, was reportedly struck by a vehicle just north of Greytown while walking along a 70km/h stretch of State Highway 2 about 5am.
He was wearing his Greytown Football Club uniform when the incident happened. The driver didn't stop to see if he was okay.
Newton was airlifted to hospital where he remains in a stable condition. He was operated on and had scans yesterday afternoon.
In a post to Facebook earlier this morning, Newton's club sent their "deepest love and best wishes" as he recovers from the devastating accident.
"We hope for his speedy recovery and are keeping him in our thoughts," the club said.
"We also extend our support to William's family in these challenging times. We stand with you, and we are here for you."
They said the alleged hit-and-run had devastated the local community.
"This has hit our small community hard, and we are all devastated. But we are strong, and we stand together in times like this."
Both the club and police are appealing for witnesses to the incident to come forward.
Police want to talk to anyone who saw Newton walking and anyone that saw him being struck.
"We'd certainly like to speak to them. We have three or four witnesses at the moment that are speaking to police," Inspector Scott Miller said yesterday.
"Police or Crimestoppers but certainly a police direct report to us would be fantastic, thank you."
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