While The Rock was in Australia filming San Andreas recently, he also took the time to speak to a professional rugby league player whose life was changed by an injury sustained in a game earlier this year.

Alex McKinnon was playing with his team, the Newcastle Knights, on March 24 when he suffered a severe spinal injury in a tackle. Beau Ryan, a former player who works on The Footy Show (a weekly show that looks at the goings-on in the world of rugby league down under), reached out to The Rock to see if he would talk to McKinnon, who like millions around the world, is a fan of the big man.

So much so, that McKinnon’s last update on Twitter before his accident was the following retweet:

The Rock agreed to talk to McKinnon and below is the segment from The Footy Show on that conversation and what it meant both to McKinnon and Ryan, who covered the story. This is awesome stuff from all involved, and fair play to Ryan for setting it up and to The Rock for stepping up. The call obviously hit a note with him too as he tweeted this update last weekend:

Check out the report: