HE was a superfit, sports-mad sixth former at Ampleforth College, who was looking forward to joining the Grenadier or Scots Guards.

But Timothy Lyes, 20, will never play sport again, and his dreams of an army career lie in ruins, after he broke a leg in a football match, and York District Hospital failed to treat the injury correctly.

Much of the calf muscle in his leg died and had to be removed, and then replaced via muscle grafts from elsewhere in his body during a series of more than 30 operations. But walking is difficult and he will never run again.

Now the York Health Trust has agreed to pay him £240,000 damages in an out-of-court settlement after admitting liability.

Timothy's solicitor, Ian Pryer of Langleys, said he was a 17-year-old student at the top Roman Catholic boarding school near Helmsley, who played rugby for the school, as well as being a keen cricketer, footballer and tennis player, when the accident happened during an informal football match on May 13, 1997.

He suffered serious fractures to both the tibia and fibula (the bones below the knee) of his left leg in a bad tackle.

He was taken to York District Hospital, where surgeons operated the next day, inserting a pin in the tibia to help knit the bones together.

"He should have been monitored very carefully because of the possibility of "compartment syndrome" developing, under which the blood supply to tissues is interfered with, leading to necrosis, or dying, of the tissue," said Mr Pryer.

Timothy reported symptoms at 8am on May 15 which indicated compartment syndrome might be taking place, but a second operation was only conducted at 8pm the following day when the symptoms were still present. The syndrome was discovered and action taken to tackle the problem.

But a third operation on May 19 found that significant areas of calf muscle had already died before the second op took place, and they were removed, leaving little of the leg but the bones.

The subsequent 30-plus operations affected his studies, and he failed his A-levels at Ampleforth. He successfully re-took them the following year, and is now at Edinburgh University.

Mr Pryer praised York Health Trust for admitting liability fairly quickly, but added: "This is a very sad case in that Timothy's hopes and aspirations were taken away from him."

Mike Proctor, director of nursing at York Health Services NHS Trust, said: "We sincerely apologise for what happened to Mr Lyes and the effect it has had on his life.

"The Trust accepts responsibility for what went wrong, and we are pleased for Mr Lyes that an appropriate settlement in regard to this matter has now been achieved."