He's alert and communicating but the latest Queensland teenager to sustain a neck injury in a schoolboy rugby match may face a "long journey" to recovery.
Alexander Clark, 15, damaged his neck during a match for Nudgee College on Saturday while scoring a try.
The Year 9 student underwent emergency surgery at Lady Cilento Children's Hospital on Saturday evening but remains in intensive care.
On Monday, Nudgee principal Peter Fullagar conceded Alexander's recovery had only just begun.
"Alexander's condition is stable ... he is communicating, alert and in remarkable spirits," Mr Fullagar said in a statement.
"While Alexander's recovery is underway with the support from his medical team, we are realistic this may be a long journey."
Alexander is the fourth schoolboy to suffer a serious neck injury while participating in rugby activities as part of Queensland's Great Public Schools (GPS) competition.
On July 21, Gregory Terrace Year 11 student Conor Tweedy damaged the C4 and C5 vertebrae near the base of his neck when a scrum collapsed.
Conor remains in hospital with muscle paralysis and weakness after his injury.
A pair of Toowoomba Grammar School Year 12 students also required surgery after dislocating vertebrae in their necks in separate incidents on July 13 and 14.
One of the Toowoomba incidents happened during training and not a match.
While one of the Toowoomba students remains in a Brisbane hospital, the other teen has since returned home.
The spate of injuries has forced Rugby Australia (RA) to announce it will review all four incidents.
Rugby Australia officials will also meet with the nine GPS principals in Brisbane on Wednesday.
"Rugby Australia is doing every we can around safety and we absolutely hold it as a number one priority," RA boss Raelene Castle said on Monday.
"It's 10 years since we've had a very significant incident in schoolboy rugby and the fact we've had a cluster in GPS is something we're concerned about and that's what we will be reviewing."
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