E27 - Paul Brush: West Ham footballer | Dealing with on and off field pain in elite sport

“Somewhere God was tapping me on the shoulder saying, hey you aint clever enough to deal with this yourself…just ask me for a bit of help!”

Paul Brush has battled through a lot of adversity in his life and career - from serious injury, being dropped for the FA Cup final, to losing his wife through leukaemia, leaving him to raise a five-month old son. In the midst of it all he began to follow Jesus following a Billy Graham rally in the 1980s.

Paul was a professional footballer and now coach who played in the Football League for West Ham United, Crystal Palace and Southend United. He is best known for his time with West Ham United, for whom he played from 1976 until 1985.

In this interview with Graham Daniels we look at issues such as:

• Battling injury

• Hitting the wall as a top level player

• Coming to faith later in life

• How his faith informs his coaching