“I don’t feel like a disabled person playing a sport. I feel normal,” the 47-year-old says.

He says the game, also known as murderball, requires strategy and synergy between players, like “having Bluetooth” connection with one another. They must know when they should move to receive a passed ball, when to block or avoid opponents, and when there is an opportunity to score. They also have to remember to dribble the ball every eight seconds.

Mr Wong plays for the Wheelchair Rugby Association of Singapore (WRAS), competing in regional friendlies and tournaments. From May 22 to 26, the team will travel to Kuala Lumpur to face Malaysia and Thailand at the Malaysian Wheelchair Rugby Federation Training Camp and International Friendly Competition 2025. Their goal is to achieve a podium finish at the Asean Para Games 2029, to be held in Singapore.

Mr Wong trains twice a week at Choa Chu Kang Stadium with the team, whose players are currently aged between 15 and 66.

Mr Wong’s wife Siti Nooraini Abdul Manaf (bottom), 42, is also in on the action. On the sidelines of each three-hour training session, she is busy with wrenches and spanners, helping to fix and maintain the team’s sports wheelchairs as a volunteer technical assistant for the WRAS.

Amid her tasks, she sneaks glances at her husband, cheering him on as he makes his way across the court, her pride visible in her soft smile.

The couple have a 21-year-old daughter.

Watching Mr Wong – charging, passing, laughing – it’s hard to imagine who he was just five years ago.

In August 2020, while working as a taxi driver, Mr Wong stepped out of his vehicle during a break at a petrol station and suddenly could not move the right side of his body.

“I was so worried. I couldn’t move my right limbs. How am I going to drive again? What’s happening? Will I recover? What’s happening – is it a stroke?” he recalls.

Mr Wong spent about five months in the hospital. His wife spent the entire day with him then, caring for him and assisting him with toileting and showering. Courtesy of Mikail Wong

It turned out that Mr Wong had a spinal arteriovenous malformation and haemorrhage in the C6 to T5 section of his spinal cord. This is a rare condition where a tangle of blood vessels near the spinal cord causes bleeding between the neck and upper back area, leading to paralysis.

It left Mr Wong paralysed from the chest down on his right side.

Due to Mr Wong’s condition, he is unable to sweat to regulate heat. He learnt from the other players to spray water on his skin as a way to cool down during games.

He was hospitalised for about five months, followed by 4½ months of therapy. He had to rebuild trunk control, upper body strength, and finger function on his right side. Now, his only good arm is his left one – but he was a right-hander.

Volunteers helping to set up Mr Wong’s sport wheelchair at a wheelchair rugby training session at Choa Chu Kang Stadium on April 10.

“He had to relearn everything, basically,” says Madam Nooraini.

Losing his mobility and ability to earn an income plunged him into depression.

Mr Wong was diagnosed with borderline depression after losing his mobility and ability to earn an income. He rarely left his room, but that changed when he found passion in wheelchair rugby.

“I’d see him just staring at the ceiling,” Madam Nooraini recalls. “He didn’t know I was watching. I think he was trying to put on a brave front. But I could see he was very, very troubled.”

She says it took a long time for him to accept what had happened.

Reflecting on the dark period, Mr Wong shares that he had thought: “Why did this happen to me? Why not just let me go, instead of living half-dead and troubling everyone?”

But, he adds, “My wife was always there to care and support me, and because of her, I feel safe.”

Despite his condition, Mr Wong decided to relearn driving, which he loves, as it was a way for him to achieve normalcy.

Mr Wong had always been active – playing football, going to the gym, and rock climbing when he was younger. Madam Nooraini figured sports might help lift his spirits.

“He had nothing outside of therapy (once every two weeks),” she says. “I wanted to fill up his week, so he wouldn’t be stuck at home with dangerous thoughts.”

She found out about wheelchair rugby in March 2023 through a therapist at Alexandra Hospital.

At first, Mr Wong rejected the idea.

“Wah, violent one! I’m already handicapped, how do I play this kind of game? If I fall down, hit my head, then it’s game over,” he says.

But his wife signed him up anyway.

He went along with it. “I thought I’d just entertain her.”

It was at his third session, as he took his place on the court, that something clicked. He learnt the rules, made friends and got hooked.

Madam Nooraini also met team manager Muhd Aidil Khalip (bottom left), an amputee player, who supports the players and manages the playing equipment.

“I was so amazed. He never complains. So I said, teach me some things,” Madam Nooraini recalled. She soon joined the action, too, and became a volunteer technical assistant.

Madam Nooraini said her husband has accepted his condition and made “real progress”, with his physical and mental condition improving in leaps and bounds.

Mr Wong discussing strategy with his teammates at Choa Chu Kang Stadium on April 10.

“I may not recover fully,” Mr Wong says, “But I feel stronger. I can do basic tasks like making coffee, cleaning my wheelchair.”

He now trains daily at home and hits the gym with a fellow player and their wives. The two couples also often go on dates and celebrate milestones together.

Mr Wong and Madam Nooraini chilling at a cafe with fellow wheelchair rugby player Taufik Omar and his wife Noraini Che Rahman, after a gym session on April 8.

“I’m happy. At least I can see my biceps now,” says Mr Wong. “I can throw farther, make a sharp right curve faster than before. My training at home has paid off.

Besides doing exercises at home, Mr Wong also goes to the gym at least once a week to use its specialised equipment.

“I like to have fun in everything,” he adds, smiling. “If no fun, come for what?”

He analyses each session. “There’s always room to improve. I want to be more powerful and to reach my maximum ability, even with my disability.”

Mr Wong hopes to grow strong enough to care for himself as he ages, to ease the burden on his wife. Meanwhile, she is planning to sign him up for courses to prepare him to work again in the future.

Mr Wong is determined to do well in wheelchair rugby and hopes he will be able to compete in the Asean Para Games 2029 that will be held in Singapore.

“He’s back to his old self,” she says. “That’s the man I fell in love with. Now, he cracks lame jokes again.”

Madam Nooraini adds: “I just want him to be self-sufficient. Because if one day I’m not around – whether it’s due to age or health – I hope he can maintain himself and live well.”

Mr Wong says: “I won’t give up the sport... Even if I stop playing competitively, I’ll stay on as a community player.”