Wheelchair using coach invited to England training

Not many young football coaches can claim to have been asked to watch the England squad train.

But that's exactly what happened to 22-year-old Sohail Rehman.

Sohail is thought to be one of the world's first wheelchair users to coach non-disabled players.

He has been invited by the FA to attend a training session with Roy Hodgson's England squad ahead of their Euro 2016 qualifiers.

Sohail has a condition called spinal muscular atrophy.

It causes muscles in the body to weaken, leading to a gradual loss of movement.

For football-mad Sohail that meant a premature end to his playing career at the age of 13, but he was far from done with the game he loves.

"I loved everything to do with football as a kid," he said.

"I remember going to the specialists and there were these people I'd never met in my life telling me I was never going to walk again. I was thinking, 'How can they say that?'"

Sohail began using a wheelchair soon after and, in a bid to stay involved in the game, took up coaching.

After getting his level-three Football Association badges he was sent a letter of congratulations from his boyhood hero Sir Alex Ferguson during the Scot's final season with United.

"That was a major motivation to keep going and carry on what I was doing," he said.

"It was a struggle to get here and I don't want to stop, my dream job would be to manage England or to coach in the Premier League."

Sohail's also had the chance to watch Manchester United's finest train on one of the club's Dream Days.

"I wanted to talk to the players about Rooney's bicycle kick and Van Persie scoring these great goals but they wanted to speak about me which was amazing."

The lifelong United fan admits that some within the sport question his ability to coach, but he says he's determined to prove the doubters wrong.

He said: "I know I'll have to win over a lot of people but I don't mind everyone saying, 'Oh he's in a wheelchair' or 'he can't do certain drills'.

"It doesn't affect me, as long as I can see a player that I've coached score goals then I'm not fussed."

Shakeel Mira, 19, is just one of the Sunday league players Sohail's now coaching on a regular basis.

He says his game's gone up a level since training with the man he calls "gaffer".

"He pushes us very hard.

"His knowledge of the game is exceptional, people have misconceptions just because he's in a wheelchair. I don't think there's a limit to what he can achieve, he can go right to the top."

But the Leeds lad says he's not content with what he's achieved so far and wants to help shape the future of the game.

"For me the achievement will be if you see a coach in a wheelchair in the football league or if you put on your Saturday night Match of the Day and you see a coach in a wheelchair on the side line, for me that's an achievement.

"It'd be something completely different."

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