In his second match for Footscray (Round 2, 1975), Sachse was left a quadriplegic after an accidental collision with Fitzroy player Kevin O'Keeffe.
In 1994, Neil Sachse and Dawn Ferrett founded an organisation to raise funds for research into the treatment of spinal cord injury.
[citation needed] Originally known as the Spinal Research Fund of Australia Incorporated, it was renamed the Neil Sachse Foundation.
Since 1994, it has raised over $2 million which has funded a research project at Flinders University that proved that nerve fibres in the spine can regenerate past the site of the injury and return some function.
Sachse's biography, Playing On, written with Michael Sexton, was released through Affirm Press in August 2015.