"It's from hitting the walls when I get stressed," he says.
His hand might never recover but the rest of him could, with the right care. Chris, 21, is one of 108 young people living at Portsmouth Foyer. Since moving in four months ago, the brickwork has been spared the force of his fists because of a transformation in his behaviour that he didn't think possible.
"It's brilliant," he says. "I was wasting my life doing drugs, getting drunk and getting into trouble with the police. Now I just keep myself to myself."
Chris was, he admits, a "right little bastard" when his parents threw him out at 15. "I don't blame them because I have two younger brothers and sisters and they couldn't handle me," he says.
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