Simon Baker is the founder of the Irish Amputee Football Association and captain of the IAFA’s international team. That team will play the Netherlands, Ukraine and hosts Poland in an international tournament this weekend. He is also the secretary general of the European Amputee Football Federation.

Even the great Messi himself could pick up a new addition to his routine from an international soccer tournament for wheelchair-bound players under way at the University of Limerick.

Fast, technical and played with sheer determination.

READING Sport On The Fringes, the marvellous three-part series by Ewan MacKenna in this paper this week, you were reminded that some people need sport more than others, that some people deserve sport more, not just for its medals and its rewards and its glory, but to give them something to dream about when troubled heads find a pillow.