London 2012 Olympics: Scott and Martin Sinclair are the footballing brothers ready to make history "I came down a play slide and landed on my hip," recalls Martin, who was at the time already recognised as suffering from cerebral palsy. I broke it, but my doctors misdiagnosed it. They said it was a pulled ligament. But the ball and socket had come out and gone right up my backside. They never X-rayed me or nothing. That put me out of action for years. Scott recalls how the injury affected the whole family. "My mum and dad were stretching him out every day not realising he had a broken hip," he says. He was screaming the place down. Theirs was a football mad household. Their father, also called Martin, had been a semi-pro player for several West Country outfits, and encouraged his sons to kick a ball almost as soon as they could walk. Even their grandmother, they say, is mad for the sport. For Martin junior, the frustration of life in a wheelchair was somewhat alleviated by being able to watch his two brothers progress in the game. Scott, signed by Bristol Rovers as a boy before moving on to Chelsea and then Swansea, was an exceptional junior talent. Jake, now 17, is currently tearing up Southampton's academy. "Watching Scott and Jake play football kept me going," Martin recalls. I'd one week go see one of them play, next week the other. I never gave up on the dream of playing myself. When I was in the wheelchair I had family around me who never looked at the negative. That's what kept me going and smiling. I was in constant pain but I had to battle through it and keep smiling. Eventually I was supposed to have an operation on my hand. When I went into hospital in a wheelchair they decided to X-ray my hip as well. I had a hip replacement at 21 so in total I was in and out of hospital for eight years and I was in a wheelchair for 3½ years. But everything happens for a reason. Had I not broken my hip, I probably wouldn't be in the Team GB Paralympic football team. His breakthrough back into the game came while his brother was on loan at Plymouth. He had taken some coaching qualifications and the then Argyle manager Ian Holloway gave him a job on the club's community programme. Back on his feet walking, Martin learnt that there was a disability team nearby and he signed up. Within a season he had been scouted by the England management and soon established himself as an international. Martin established himself as a Paralympic certainty long before his brother got the call up. It was a proud moment for the Sinclair family when Scott was selected as well. Though when it comes to pride, it is the beaming Scott who claims to have the greater. I'm more proud of him [than he is of me]. Definitely," says Scott. He's been through so much in his life. Being misdiagnosed by the doctors then being in a wheelchair for three years after breaking his hip was a lot to go through. But he still managed to battle through it. He's had a tough time. And now he's here. Best of all, with his brother alongside him.