They’re not from the Caribbean but they call themselves ‘pirates‘ nonetheless.

Pirates of the Caribbean is a hugely popular 21^st-century film series of course, but the pirates in question here are a rapidly growing group of walking footballers who are part of the wonderful set-up at Abbeymead Rovers.

They play impairment and rehab walking football and, as the title would suggest, they’re all recovering from injury, illness or have serious mobility problems.

And the reason they’re referred to as pirates is simple, because impairment and rehab walking football involves ‘Physical Interaction, Recuperation And Training for Everyone’. By taking the first letter of each of those words you spell ‘pirate’.

The pirates meet every Wednesday morning at Abbeydale Community Centre in Gloucester and Stuart Langworthy, the driving force behind the group and someone who has done so much for football and walking football over the years, said: “It’s one of the most rewarding things I have ever done.

“It’s so good for their physical and mental wellbeing. Some of them wouldn’t get out at all if it wasn’t for these sessions.

“Everyone does what they can, there is no pressure. Everyone is fully supportive, it’s such good fun.”

Langworthy, a retired schoolteacher, has been running the sessions for the past 15 months and when he spoke to The Local Answer he was delighted to report that more than 30 people had taken part in the most recent session.

“Carers and partners can play too, everyone can get involved,” he continued. “At our first session we had just eight players and volunteers, the numbers we’re getting now are incredible.

“The sessions run for an hour from 10.30am, but very often people are there at 10.15am and then afterwards they’ll have a cup of coffee and a chat. That’s just as important.

“At our most recent session we had four people with Parkinson’s, two recovering from strokes, a couple with cancer, three with mental health problems and depression, three over-80s who are a bit frail and a couple with COPD.

”We have a fantastic group of volunteers, some of whom bring players to the sessions.”

The walking football group receives funding from the Active Gloucestershire Together Fund and, more recently, the Get Out Get Active (GOGA) Fund, with Langworthy saying: “They’re brilliant.”

Anyone is welcome to join the sessions. For further information, email stuartlangworthy@hotmail.com