Four members of Leicester Tigers title-winning wheelchair rugby team have been selected as part of the 12-man Great Britain squad to play at the GIO 2018 Wheelchair Rugby World Championships in Sydney in August.

Muhammed Islam, Nick Cummins and Jamie Stead have been selected along with Gavin Walker, who will take on the vice-captain role throughout the tournament which takes place from August 5-10.

Walker served as a firefighter for ten years and has played for Tigers for a number of seasons, as well as representing Great Britain at previous international tournaments including the Paralympics in Rio.  

Tigers coaching staff will also be heading to Australia with head coach Darren Matthews and chairman/coach Rob Tarr joining Great Britain head coach Paul Shaw in assistant coaching roles for the tournament.

The first Wheelchair Rugby World Championships was held in Switzerland in 1995 and has been held every four years since the 1998 tournament.

Great Britain has competed in all seven tournaments and finished the previous 2014 tournament in fifth place overall. 

Ranked fifth in the world, Great Britain have been drawn in Pool B with France, Poland, Columbia as well as the USA and Canada, who are ranked second and third in the world respectively. 

Tigers and rivals West Coast Crash, who finished second to Tigers in this year’s Super Series championship, have the most representatives in the GB squad with four players each.   

Great Britain head coach Paul Shaw said: “We’ve selected an exciting squad to take into the World Championships, I’m confident we can do something special.”

The club will be sharing updates with Great Britain’s progress in Australia throughout the World Championships.