22/07/2022
Lead Sports Podiatrist at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games 2022. This is a great honour for me as I follow in the footsteps of one of my mentors and inspiration Professor Nat Padhiar who was the podiatric clinical lead at the London Olympics 2012.
Over the last 12 months I have been working with the Commonwealth Games medical team organizers and our multi disciplinary team colleagues with planning the role and scope of the sports podiatrists at the games, recruitment of podiatrists, logistics as well as providing extensive hands-on musculoskeletal sport medicine training to many of the younger podiatrists who will be volunteering at the games, which is something I have really enjoyed.
It has been exciting to see how podiatric sports medicine is evolving since I first qualified as a podiatrist in 1995, podiatric sports medicine entails detailed assessment, examination and management of sports injuries of the lower limb – especially the foot, ankle and lower leg. With the use MRi, Ultrasound and Blood tests to assist in supporting a clinical diagnosis.
In my clinical practice, 90% of what I do is treating professional and amateur athletes however volunteering my time to treat athletes is something which I have enjoyed doing for many years. As the head of sports medicine for the Birmingham Youth Sports Academy that has over 300 young male and female footballers that regularly attend weekly sessions, treating young footballers with injuries every week is something I find immensely rewarding.
Sports podiatrists perform image-guided injections, ultrasound scanning, provide orthotics, shockwave and laser treatment while always considering a multidisciplinary approach to managing patients with evidence-based rehabilitation prescription.
I sincerely believe that podiatric sports medicine is evolving into a speciality that many young podiatrists will wish to excel at with Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) offering established postgraduate qualifications (certificates, diplomas and master’s degrees) in podiatric sports medicine (as a former student I can personally vouch for QMUL excellence), the future is bright for a profession I genuinely love.
