When a kick to the leg during a local football match resulted in the amputation of half of Ray Westbrook’s left leg, it looked like his promising young career was over at just 14 years old.

Doctors told the Hampshire man that he’d never play football again, and the sooner he could come to terms with that the better.

But Ray’s father, also called Ray, had other ideas.

He took his son to the local park and made him run until he was confident on his new prosthetic leg to kick a ball.

Within the year, despite medical reckoning to the contrary, he was back playing.

And fast forward almost two decades the Southampton roofer is achieving much more than just playing.

The 32-year-old is about to captain Great Britain to the amputee World Cup in Mexico at the end of this month.

“When I was a kid I loved football,” he said. “And the reason why I’m an amputee is because of football.

“I got kicked in the ankle, which was very painful, and it triggered a cancerous growth in my ankle.

“The lump never went down.

“I was told it would spread up through my leg if it was left like it was. So they had to take part of my leg off.

“I went to the doctors and I had a lot of treatment to get it checked out to see what it was. In the end they said it was too big to operate on.

“If they had operated, I wouldn’t have been able to walk anyway.

“The only option was to take it off.”

Westbrook has played for the national team for eight years and, in that time, has won two tournament winners’ medals.

He’s come a long way since losing part of his leg.

“I was devastated,” he said. “It was all kind of a blur when it happened.

“I’ve blocked it out now; it was in a completely different time in my life.

“When it happened, the worst thing was that I wasn’t going to be able to play football anymore. I had always played and loved football.

“When it was first amputated the doctors said I would never be able to play football ever again.”

Despite his doctor’s opinion, Westbrook came back from being in a wheelchair to playing football within a year, with a little help from his father. “My dad was so good,” Wesbrook said. “When I first became an amputee he took me down to the park and made me run, even though I didn’t want to run.

“He used to say ‘go on, run’ and make me run around a pitch.

“It has benefitted me but I didn’t want to do it at the time.

“It was about a year later that I played football again.

“Because I was young, I wanted to prove people otherwise.

“I was told I could never play again and it made me more determined.

“I don’t feel like an amputee. Some days it hurts and I struggle with it, but most days it’s just normal.”

Now, thanks to the sponsorship of Adams Roofing firm, who he works for in Southampton, the centre back will lead his country out at the World Cup.

The tournament runs between 27 November and 8 December, with 24 teams competing for the silverware.

New teams, including Italy, Germany, Holland and Belgium, have signed up for the event, which is set to be more competitive than ever.

Amputee football is played on crutches. England last won the World Cup 25 years ago.

Westbrook plays his amputee football domestically for Oxford and also plays able-bodied Sunday league in Portsmouth, where he lives.

He wants to start a local amputee team, instead of having to travel to Oxford to play.

“The sport is getting bigger,” he said. “I’m trying to start a team locally at the moment.

“There’s a national league that has four teams in at the moment, but I’m hoping to start a new one up.

“Obviously where the sport isn’t well known not many teams have been set up.

“Because I’m a roofer I’m quite mobile anyway and I play able-bodied football too with my mates.

“I’m not slow; I can keep up with most strikers.

“I keep up with most of them.”