bloody cozzies bastad things bust again

i was drivin home the other day and the gearstick on the car went a bit funny and then bust , heres what happened

it felt as if the spring theat returns the gear stick to neutral had gone and the stick jut stayed where you put it when the car was in neutral instead of springing back like normal , i kept on driving and within a 1/4 mile or so i found it hard to locate a gear with the stick, then the stick just went completely floppy and felt like it wasn't connected to the box, the only restriction stopping the stick moving side to side or top and bottom is the plastic trim around the gaiter, its like stirring a bowl of porridge, the stick doesnt move up and down and i took the gaiter off and theres nothing broke or snapped so it must be summit that connects to the bottom ofthe stick inside of the box???

does anyone know how these are connected or have any idea what it could be please, any exploded diagrams of the connection etc and can it be fixed without removing the box???

cheers