The parents of seriously ill toddler Alfie Evans will meet with doctors later to discuss taking him home, his father has said.

The Court of Appeal upheld a ruling on Wednesday preventing the 23-month-old from travelling abroad after life support was withdrawn.

Tom Evans and Kate James wanted their son to be transported to Rome for treatment.

Mr Evans said he will meet doctors and "we now start asking to go home".

Outside Alder Hey hospital in Liverpool, Mr Evans said: "We got rejected yesterday to go to Italy unfortunately. We could take it further but would that be the right thing to do, would there be more criticism?"

He did not rule out further legal action and said the family has "appeals to explore".

"So what we do today is we have a meeting with the doctors at Alder Hey and we now start asking to go home," he said.

He added: "Alfie doesn't need intensive care any more. Alfie is lying on the bed with one litre of oxygen going into his lungs and the rest is him.

"Some people say it's a miracle, it's not a miracle, it's a misdiagnosis."

Roger Kiska, a solicitor at the Christian Legal Centre which is part of the legal team supporting Mr Evans, told Radio 4's Today programme the legal battle is not over and "there are other options".

Mr Evans said: "All I ask for now is for this meeting to be a positive one and I hope to have Alfie, on the terms of mine and Alder Hey, to be home within a day or two".

"If the meeting doesn't go well today, well then I'll go back to court."

The latest attempt to allow Alfie to be transported to the Vatican-linked Bambino Gesu Hospital in Rome was rejected on Wednesday.

Lord Justice McFarlane, who led the appeal court panel, said there was no prospect of the challenge succeeding and Alfie was in "the middle" of a palliative care plan.

Alfie has a rare undiagnosed degenerative neurological condition and has been in a semi-vegetative state for more than a year. He has been cared for at Alder Hey Children's Hospital since December 2016.

The hospital has seen several protests in recent weeks organised by a campaign group calling itself "Alfie's Army".

On Wednesday, bosses at the hospital defended staff who they said had endured a "barrage" of abuse. Merseyside Police is investigating claims patients and staff were intimidated.

Chairman of the hospital trust Sir David Henshaw said in an open letter that staff had been the subject of "unprecedented personal abuse that has been hard to bear".