Sam Dewhirst enjoying World Cup experience

The England cerebral palsy squad are currently in Atlanta for the IFCPF World Cup 2026, where they’ve made a strong start to the tournament so far.

Jack Rutter’s team won all three of their group stage games without conceding a goal, and are now looking forward to a quarter-final clash with the Netherlands on Tuesday evening (8.30pm BST).

Ahead of that game, we caught up with Para Lions winger Sam Dewhirst to get his thoughts on the tournament so9 far and England’s ambitions for the rest of the week.

Sam, how are you enjoying the tournament so far?

Yeah, I’m enjoying it. It’s been good, and it’s great to be in America and experience a different place to play football.

The group stage has been great for England, plenty of goals and none conceded so a perfect start?

We’ve done really well, with no goals conceded so far and we’ve been solid. We could’ve been a little bit more ruthless in a couple of games but you’ve just got to take the three wins and try and build some momentum going into the knockout phase.

You’ve had a fruitful start too, three goals and a number of assists so you must be pleased with how it’s going?

Yeah, I’m pleased with my stats so far. Goals and assists is what I want to get but also to do my job defensively as well. We’re in the knockout stages now and this is where it becomes more important for me.

How are you enjoying working under Jack?

Working under Jack has been great. He’s given me a lot more freedom to express myself and play where I want to play, and I think I’m playing a lot better football personally. He’s really helping me here, we speak a lot away from football and he’s helped me a lot.

He’s got a lot of experience in your shoes now, has that helped the group in this tournament?

His past experience really helps our team because he knows the game inside out. He knows the patterns and what the best teams have done throughout the years in terms of being successful. He knows how to manage the tournaments, because you don’t get a lot of rest and his knowledge and the format of IFCPF has really helped us all.

What’s it been like playing at the US National Training Centre?

The facilities are fantastic, the pitch has been amazing. It’s a world class facility and it’s been a pleasure playing here so far.