{"id":10188,"date":"2014-10-08T12:22:06","date_gmt":"2014-10-08T12:22:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tat.reddaisytrading.co.uk\/index.php\/2014\/10\/08\/wheelchair-bound-coach-invited-to-england-squad-training\/"},"modified":"2016-01-07T17:14:35","modified_gmt":"2016-01-07T17:14:35","slug":"wheelchair-bound-coach-invited-to-england-squad-training","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/2014\/10\/08\/wheelchair-bound-coach-invited-to-england-squad-training\/","title":{"rendered":"Wheelchair-Bound Coach Invited to England Squad Training"},"content":{"rendered":"
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22-year-old Sohail Rehman was invited by the FA to watch a training session<\/h3>\n

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A sports coach who was recently recruited by Manchester United has been given the opportunity to train with the national squad. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

22-year-old Sohail Rehman was invited by the FA to watch a training session with Roy Hodgson\u2019s England team. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Known as one of the world\u2019s first wheelchair users to coach non-disabled football players, Sohail has beaten the odds to pursue his passion for the sport.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The coach suffers from Spinal Muscular Atrophy which causes muscles in the body to weaken over time and eventually leads to overall loss of movement.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Although forced to stop playing football aged 13, Sohail wasn\u2019t ready to give up.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cI loved everything to do with football as a kid,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cI 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?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Restricted from playing, Sohail decided to take up coaching and obtained his level-three Football Association badges.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

This is not the first time he has had the chance to watch football stars train, having previously attended a training session with Manchester United on one of their Dream Days.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

“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.”<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

But with success comes doubters and many have questioned Sohail\u2019s ability to coach due to his physical state. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

“It doesn’t affect me, as long as I can see a player that I’ve coached score goals then I’m not fussed.”<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

As such, players being coached by Sohail have vouched for his expertise, calling his knowledge of the game \u201cexceptional\u201d.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Looking to the future, the Leeds local has big dreams.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

“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.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

22-year-old Sohail Rehman was invited by the FA to watch a training session A sports coach who was recently recruited by Manchester United has been given the opportunity to train with the national squad. 22-year-old Sohail Rehman was invited by the FA to watch a training session with Roy Hodgson\u2019s England team. Known […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11753,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sport"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10188"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10188\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}