A schoolboy suffering from a devastating disease which left him covered in blisters and confined to a hospital bed is playing football after being fitted with an entirely new skin.

The seven-year-old German boy was born with the incredibly rare condition junctional epidermolysis bullosa (JEB), which causes skin to blister and tear at the slightest touch.

Although doctors in his home country had attempted skin grafts taken from his father, none had been successful and he had was forced to live in the burns unit at Bochum’s Children’s Hospital in the Ruhr district because most of his outer skin was missing or horribly damaged.

In desperation doctors contacted experts in other countries, and eventually found a group of Italian scientists who were experimenting with skin cell regeneration techniques.

In a world first, the team took a sample of skin just 1.5 square inches (4sq cm), extracted the stem cells then genetically engineered them back to healthy cells.

The healthy tissue was then grown into large skin grafts that were used to replace 80 per cent of the boy's skin in three pioneering operations.

His new skin no longer blisters and the youngster has been able to play football for the first time and enjoy the rough and tumble of a normal schoolboy's life.