Mr Navraj Atwal

• Hip replacement
• Knee replacement
• Knee arthroscopy

Treating sports injuries

Treating athletes and helping them to stay at the top of their game has been a drive and focus of Mr Atwal's career. He completed his specialist training in Sydney at the world renowned North Sydney Orthopaedic and Sports Medicine Centre. The clinic was within the Allianz Stadium in Moore Park, Sydney in order to provide a facility for the rapid assessment and treatment of elite players of the local rugby and football teams. The highlight of his training there was being part of the medical team for the Wallabies and All Blacks during their 2012 Bledisloe Cup clash in Sydney. The line-up featured legends such as New Zealand’s Dan Carter and Australia’s Kurtley Beale.

Mr Atwal was seeing some of the best rugby union players in the southern hemisphere and providing match day medical care to the NSW Waratahs, but when he was asked if he wanted to be part of the match day medical team for the Bledisloe Cup, it felt like the opportunity of a lifetime. The atmosphere at such a prestigious match was electric. Mr Atwal was able to mingle with great players from the past and present, and observe the teams during their pre-match preparations. There were numerous similarities that he could relate to his own surgical training whilst he was watching both sets of players train and prepare for the match, and the coaching staff outlining different strategies for various eventualities. As a surgeon, Mr Atwal also has to prepare for every operation with meticulous care in order to provide the best possible outcome for his patients. After a debrief with the rest of the match day medical team and the respective team doctors, he joined the teams as they made their way through the tunnel out onto the Olympic Stadium where 76,000 fans had gathered. Running out behind the teams into the stadium was awe-inspiring and Mr Atwal took his place on the bench alongside the players with the rest of the medical team.

He was watching play in a completely different way to what he was normally used to in the stands with the rest of the supporters. Rather than simply enjoying the game, the onus was more towards early identification of potential medical problems needing their assistance. As it turned out the injury count was minimal but Mr Atwal was called into action on a couple of occasions. He was impressed with the swift liaison between the team doctor and the match day medical team allowing the team to prepare the medical area to treat a scalp laceration efficiently in order to get the player back onto the pitch rapidly. In his day to day role, Mr Atwal is very used to the same familiar team work that is evident in our hospitals, but this was very different to his comfort zone within a hospital where the necessary instruments as well as theatre staff are readily available to help. This involved gathering all the required kit out of different medical boxes and preparing a suitable area expediently. The All Blacks were the reigning World champions and went on to clinch victory that day too. Mr Atwal's match day programme signed by Sonny Bill Williams being a memento of the evening.

He's been able to take that experience of observing first class athletes on to the next stage of his career which has involved operating on an All Blacks and becoming a consultant for Forest Green Rovers football club. Mr Atwal fully appreciates the quest for preserving careers and has developed a special interest in knee and hip surgery. There are a number of novel technological developments in this field and he is currently researching some of these as part of his practice of joint preserving knee surgery.

Take a look at the feedback from a racehorse trainer, Kim Bailey who has blogged about his experience with Mr Atwal:
Story » Blog Archive » Home (kimbaileyracing.com) - particular interest on 14th February 2023.