Until the age of 13, Sohail Rehman was no different to any other football-playing kid. Then, when he was told he’d need to use a wheelchair for the rest of his life, coaching became his passion.
Despite having spinal muscular atrophy, a genetic disease causing muscle weakness and progressive loss of movement, Sohail was able to play the game he loved throughout his childhood.
“I was never treated any differently to anyone else, and my main goal in life was to go all the way in football,” Sohail explains.
But that dream was shattered just as he entered his teens, when he was told that he would need to use a wheelchair within two years. “It was like a kick in the teeth.