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If his career had panned out how he hoped, Matthew Coward-Holley may have been playing for the Lions in South Africa. Instead, the 26-year-old is representing another British team on overseas soil, just grateful he is able to participate in sport at all.
Coward-Holley competes for Team GB in the men's trap on Thursday morning and the world champion admits 'gold is definitely the aim'. But the shooter has only found his way here after his dream of becoming a professional rugby player ended when he twice broke his back as a schoolboy.
'The first time it happened was at school rugby training when I was 13,' recalls Coward-Holley. 'I hit the ground a bit funny and ended up with two cracked vertebra and a slipped disc. I couldn't do any sport for 18 months.
Britain's Matthew Coward-Holley will compete in the trap shooting on Thursday morning
'I eventually got back to fitness a couple of years later and then I had another injury –– the same again but worse. I was in a match for my club Chelmsford and someone ran into the back of my shoulder and bent me in two.
'I woke up next morning and I couldn't get out of bed. I went to A&E and was sent straight for scans. I had cracked three vertebra, slipped two discs and disintegrated one completely.
'I spent a couple of weeks in hospital, bed bound. I was
