A youth wheelchair rugby club is down to just one player with a disability since resuming training after a two-year hiatus due to Covid.
BBC Online reports that the Ospreys junior team has restarted training sessions with non-disabled players filling in to help make up the numbers.
A 14-year-old boy who has cerebral palsy is the only junior player who would qualify to play in official tournaments.
He told the BBC: “I think that a lot of people were scared about coming back because of Covid.”
There are now concerns the junior team will not be able to continue unless they get new players.
The boy told how he joined the team, based in Llandarcy, three years ago and said the sport had given him a huge confidence boost.
When playing sports in school, he said he often felt “very patronised”.
“Everyone thinks you’re so fragile”, he explains .”It’s a completely different atmosphere here.”
His father voiced concerns that it would have a “big impact” on his son’s mental health if the club folded.
“That ability to be himself and not be handled with kid gloves I think he’d really miss,” he said.
Dale Williams, the head coach of the club’s youth section, told the BBC the side had nine players when he started in the role seven years ago. He said the club could still train with non-disabled children “but when it comes to playing tournaments we won’t be able to because we’ve got no children with us”.
Kyron Bishop, 20, has cerebral palsy and started in Ospreys Youth when he was 13 and now plays for the senior team, which still has enough members to play official competitions.
He told the BBC: “Osprey youth were a lovely team for me… they helped me to get to where I am today. I really want to get to the Paralympics for wheelchair rugby. That’s been my all-time goal.”
Kyron’s mum Rachael is the club secretary and said Covid has had a huge impact on the sport.
She said: “For disabled people, when you’re away from something for so long , it’s very difficult to get back into it. I think that the future of sport for youth is quite sad because we don’t have that player base coming through.”
