Guitar-playing Liverpool fan's 'dreams come true'

Isaac (centre with his family) was also paid a surprise visit at his school by Liverpool players Mohamed Salah and Virgil van Dijk

The mother of a young Liverpool fan whose guitar-playing and football chants have made him famous online has said she thought it was a "prank" when the club contacted her with an invitation to their training ground.

Six-year-old Isaac, who has a rare genetic condition, has won more than 500,000 TikTok followers with his renditions of Liverpool songs while strumming his toy guitar.

He has been visited at school by some of the players and was asked to be a mascot, which his mum Melissa said was his "dreams come true".

She said that despite many operations, including open heart surgery, Isaac "doesn't let any of it get him down, he just bounces back."

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Before his birth, doctors discovered Isaac had Wolf-Hirschhorn syndrome, which means he may not be able to see, hear, talk or walk in the future.

Clips of his irrepressible joy at singing and watching football have drawn praise from fans of all clubs and came to the attention of Liverpool FC, who contacted the family to arrange a special meeting.

Isaac had been using plush toys of captain Virgil van Dijk and Mohamed Salah to relax him at school and both players surprised him by turning up at a class in November.

'A miracle'

They then invited him and his family to meet the rest of the squad during a tour of their training ground.

Isaac said it was "good" to meet "Virgil and Mo", and his mum said the club's surprises had been "amazing".

Speaking to BBC Breakfast, Melissa added: "When Trent Alexander-Arnold was the only player he hadn't seen yet - as soon as [manager] Arne Slot came round - Isaac was like, 'where's Trent? I haven't met him'.

"So Arne was like, do you know his song and I'll take you to meet him…but as soon as he got face to face with Trent, he just wouldn't sing the song and asked his dad to sing it instead."

Isaac later joined Van Dijk as a mascot at the Liverpool game against Manchester City

Isaac was later asked to become a mascot at Liverpool's match against Manchester City, ahead of the International Day of Persons with Disabilities on 3 December.

"We were told he may never walk so when we see him walking out on the pitch with Virgil, it's like wow - a miracle really," Melissa said.

"It's not every day you get to witness your child's dreams come true."

The club, which shared a widely-viewed film about Isaac on their social feeds on Christmas Day, have also invited the family to watch their Boxing Day game against Leicester City from an Anfield hospitality suite.