Monday 9 October 2017: Inside Istanbul’s Beşiktaş stadium, the rib-rattling, bell-whistling fervour of 42,000 Turkish football fans becomes a deafening crescendo. For Hertfordshire office worker Michael Masters, there’s only one word to describe the moment he walked into this lion’s den on standard-issue NHS crutches: “intimidating”. He has good reason to feel trepidation because, minutes later, Masters and his England teammates face-off against home team Turkey in the European Amputee Football Championships final. For a team that, as their manager relates, is more accustomed to playing in front of “one man and his dog”, it’s remarkable stuff. Even more impressive, many of the players had spent their weekends collecting donations outside their local supermarket to get there.
If you’re looking for the perfect personification of “inspiration”, you’d be hard-pressed to find a better example than the England team. The fortitude demonstrated by their personal journeys is staggering, many having lost limbs due to truly harrowing trauma including teenage cancer, footballing injuries and traffic accidents.
Those NHS crutches play a crucial role. Outfield amputee footballers – who play without prostheses – use the metal poles to move up and down the pitch at high-speed (goalkeepers are two-footed and crutch-free, but have a one-hand or upper-extremity amputation). Last October’s final ended in heartbreak for England (Turkey clinched their 2-1 victory with a last-minute injury-time goal), but for the players inside the noisy Istanbul stadium, it was a taste of footballing glory barely imaginable a few years earlier.
It was a Saturday afternoon in 2007 when Masters’ life changed forever. The 20-year-old student had just attended a West Ham v Chelsea game and was travelling through Monument tube station in east London on his way home. As he walked along the platform, he tripped and fell into the gap. “The train was already moving – it dragged me 20 yards up the line,” he recalls. “I can’t remember what happened next. My body blanked it out.”
Waking up in hospital three days later, Masters surveyed his unfamiliar surroundings. He then looked down. “I thought: ‘Where’s my other leg gone?’ – I hadn’t a clue what had happened. Then my family and doctors came in to break the news.”
England’s amputee team take on Turkey’s in front of 42,000 fans in the final of European Amputee Football Championships in Istanbul, October 2017
The rest of the England team have similar stories. One player lost his limb after a motorbike accident. Others have survived meningitis or cancer, such as midfielder Jamie Tregaskiss, who was a 13-year-old schoolboy on Manchester City’s books when an osteosarcoma (a rare form of bone cancer) diagnosis led to a leg amputation and the end of his Premier League dreams.
There are also players with congenital disorders, such as goalkeeper Gary Marheineke, who was born without his lower right arm (“I have a rubbish story compared with the others!” he laughs). And one player in the development squad lost a limb during military service in Afghanistan.
“[These injuries] could ruin some people,” says Marheineke. “It’s quite easy to sit around and dwell on what’s happened, or on your disability. But to come back and play football is incredible.” The experience of representing England in international games, including the Amputee World Cup in Mexico this autumn, has been crucial in fostering this renewed sense of confidence.
Masters was no exception. Following his accident, he spent three months in hospital, “having to adapt to everything, such as silly day-to-day things like climbing stairs. There were three weeks when I felt really down.” But an inspirational chat with his father changed everything. “After that, there was no looking back,” he says. “I wanted to leave hospital, so was in physio every day determined to get my life back on track.”
He didn’t discover amputee football until four years later, after his sister’s boyfriend mentioned it in passing. Within six months of Googling the sport, he was playing centre-midfield for England. “It’s changed my life,” Masters enthuses. “Before my accident, football was everything [he played for Baldock Town FC]. To have that taken away was heartbreaking. I thought I’d never play again.”
“If you lose a limb, it changes your perception on life,” says Owen Coyle Jr, England’s 21-year-old head coach. “It makes you think you’re fortunate to be here and that you should make the most of what you’ve got and do something spectacular.”
Playing amputee football has transformed players’ lives in other ways too. For Marheineke, it’s resulted in a new job as football development officer at Huntingdonshire FA. “Before amputee football, I was stacking shelves in a supermarket,” he says.
The camaraderie has worked as a psychological salve, too. “I’m travelling around the world with my mates,” says Masters. “They’re not just mates – they’re family. We just giggle the whole time.”
Coyle believes this esprit de corps provides a “support mechanism that you can only get from knowing others in a similar position to you. It really aids the recovery process and explains why many play so quickly after their amputations.”
Team captain Dave Tweed – who lost his leg in a motorcycle accident – often greets the England rookies. “He establishes a rapport,” says Coyle. “He says: ‘You’ve lost a leg, I’ve lost a leg – let’s talk.’ Lads are soon asking questions about how to cope with crutches and how to get protection for stumps.”
Uniped sport has been played in the UK for more than 150 years – in 1848, 2,400 people watched a cricket match between Eleven One Armed Men and Eleven with One Leg in Lewisham in south-east London. But amputee football in its current incarnation only started in the early-1980s, when Don Bennett, who lost his leg in a boating accident, set up the American Amputee Soccer Association. Today, the sport – played by seven-a-side teams in games of two 25-minute halves – is enjoyed in nearly 50 countries.
Meeting national squads at international tournaments, some of whom play on wooden crutches, is a sobering reminder of conflicts and disasters in other countries. Many of Angola’s one-legged team lost their limbs after stepping on landmines, while players in Sierra Leone’s squad lost theirs during the country’s brutal civil war. England recently played Haiti, some of whose players became amputees after the 2010 earthquake.
The England team is often hit by distressing news itself. The website of the England Amputee Football Association (theeafa.co.uk) has an In Memory section, a tribute to England players who have died, many from recurring illnesses such as cancer or complications caused by amputations. England recently played Italy in an emotional memorial match for ex-captain Tom Jordan, who died of cancer in 2014, aged 29.
Despite the growing popularity of amputee football, the England team isn’t funded by the Football Association – though it does support the grassroots game. Instead, the team relies on charity and sponsorship, with players raising funds through online fundraising pages or collecting money on the streets. Their attendance at the Amputee World Cup in Mexico this autumn is by no means certain as they need to raise £35,000 (£1,500 for each player) to get there. “It gets harder,” says Masters. “You’re asking the same people year after year to sponsor you. We’d love not to stand outside the supermarket doing bucket collections at weekends.”
However, according to Marheineke, the fundraising element does help with motivation. “The fact we’ve grown the sport and charity without any FA funding is the most rewarding thing,” he says. “It’s made me fall in love with football again. Going out bucket-collecting brings us closer together as a team.”
Playing football hasn’t just had an immeasurable effect on helping the amputees come to terms with their injuries – but has enhanced their self-belief too. It’s helped them to find the strength and courage to do what feels right for themselves. “Amputee football gave me a whole new look on life,” says Masters. “It’s pretty much given me confidence and improved me as an individual … When we go away with the lads on trips, we don’t see ourselves as amputees. We see ourselves as a football team just like any other.”
To support amputee football and make a donation, visit the England Amputee Football Association, theeafa.co.uk
Do what feels right with Philips: whether that’s playing sport or finding a grooming routine that works for you. Find out more about Philips’ shavers here
