Chris Birch suffered a stroke and a broken neck after rolling down a hill at rugby training.
When he awoke in hospital, Birch found that his sexuality had completely changed, despite currently being engaged to his girlfriend.
“I was doing a forward roll down a grass bank one day and cut off the blood supply to my brain,” Birch told the BBC.
“The Chris I knew had gone and a new Chris sort of came along. I came to the realisation that the stroke had turned me gay,” he said.
Stroke sufferers can have their thinking, movement and feeling affected because the lack of oxygen kills brain cells.
Before the accident, Birch was a motorcycle enthusiast who worked at a bank.
12 months later, the 120kg rugby player moved out of home and quit his job to take up hairdressing.
“It was a weird experience,” Birch said.
"You walk into somewhere and you go from liking that girl to liking that boy."