LEIGH'S Gregg Warburton is one step closer to a Tokyo 2020 Paralympics medal.

He and his ParalympicsGB basketball team will feature in Friday's semi-finals, guaranteeing them a place in Sunday's medal matches.

A win on Friday would secure the 24-year-old former student of The Westleigh School and then Wigan and Leigh College a gold or silver, while defeat would hand him and his side a play-off for bronze.

Warburton, who has been a longstanding part of the British Wheelchair Basketball set-up, won bronze with the team in Rio 2016.

ParalympicsGB basketball team are proving to be comeback kings in this tournament.

They roared into the last-four stage with a brilliant comeback to see off Canada 66-52 at Ariake Arena, with Warburton among the GB side's leading scorers.

GB trailed 42-34 midway through the third quarter but scored 24 points in the last to seal their safe passage.

Player-coach Gaz Choudhry top-scored with 21 points, while there were also major contributions from Lee Manning with 17 and Warburton’s 16.

ParalympicsGB will now face either hosts Japan or Australia, who they beat 70-69 in the group stages on Monday despite trailing by 13 points at half-time.

Choudhry said: “I don’t know what it is [about the fourth quarter], we seem to play our best when we have our backs against the wall and I am not sure why.

“If I could bottle that up when we are down big, we would have it from the start but we knew it would be a grind, we knew they have Paralympic gold medallists on their team, we know they have the greatest player of all time on their team.

“They have a phenomenal coaching staff and they know us well. We knew it would take 40 minutes to beat them and that’s what happened.”

ParalympicsGB progressed into the quarter-finals as winners of Pool B.