A Life Christian football player who was airlifted to Harborview Hospital in Seattle on Friday night was released early Saturday morning and is expected to make a full recovery.

Sophomore lineman Daniel Thatcher injured his neck when his head hit the ground during a game against Chimacum High School in Port Townsend.

“I talked to Daniel and his mom on Saturday and he was up and walking around,” Life Christian coach Todd Corrigan said Sunday afternoon. “He hurt a neck muscle near his trapezius. It wasn’t a spine thing.”

Thatcher left the football field by ambulance to Jefferson General Hospital. Because the CT scan machine at that hospital was not working, Corrigan said, Thatcher was taken by helicopter to Harborview. Corrigan visited Thatcher at Harborview early Saturday morning and said he was released around 3 a.m.

Corrigan said Thatcher’s progress will be evaluated, but he is likely out for the rest of the season.

“We don’t want to rush him into anything,” he said.