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Dr Botchey is a consultant in sport, exercise and musculoskeletal medicine. He is passionate about individualised patient care and the role of orthobiologics in managing musculoskeletal conditions. To this end, he founded The Sports Biologics Clinic based in London and Berkshire. Dr Botchey has extensive experience in elite football across England pathway teams, as well as with Chelsea and Arsenal, while he has also worked in American Football, rugby, golf, hockey and athletics

Dr Forsythe is Deputy Head of Sports Medicine and leads the Head Injury & Concussion Care at Meliora Medical. Additionally, he contributes to the UK Concussion Working Group. Dr Forsythe’s background is as a general practitioner with a special interest in adolescent health and sports medicine, having garnered extensive experience in elite sport.

The question of how and when to return a player after a hamstring injury is one that affects every medical and performance department in professional football. Today’s conversation aims to give listeners a framework grounded in the best available evidence, drawn directly from Paolo’s growing body of PhD research. Paolo is a physiotherapist currently as the Lead Rehabilitation Physiotherapist at Strasbourg in Ligue unh. Alongside his clinical work, he is completing a PhD at Middlesex University, where his research focuses on return-to-play decision-making following hamstring injuries in professional football. He has previously work at Chelsea, Brentford and Norwich. Paolo has rapidly established himself as a leading voice in this area, with publications in several reputable journals, as well as a widely read blog for the British Journal of Sports Medicine. He was recently co-author on a survey of RTP practice across five of Europe’s top leagues, published just a few weeks ago.

Dr Amarnani is a consultant in sport, exercise and musculoskeletal medicine and honorary rheumatology fellow. He is the president of the Royal Society of Medicine’s Rheumatology and Rehabilitation council, as well as serving as a medical advisor and trustee to the UK’s National Axial Spondyloarthritis Society. Dr Amarnani’s elite sporting experience extends from football (West Ham United) to cricket, tennis, ballet and beyond. He is also a widely published researcher interested in the interaction between exercise and rheumatological disease

Dr Pereira specialises in Performance, Recovery, Concentration and Imagery in Football through yoga and has taught yoga since 1981. He completed his PhD in Physical Education and Sport – Physical Activity and Health with a thesis on yoga in football, and his master’s degree in High-Performance Sports Training with a dissertation on yoga in swimming at the Lusófona University in Lisbon. He is the director and coordinator of the Introduction to Yoga Short Course at the Lusófona University. Dr Pereira’s article ‘Integrating Yoga into Contemporary Football Training’ appears in the FMPA publication ‘football medicine & performance’ 50th Edition.

Nick is a Physiotherapist with over twenty years of experience working in elite sport. Throughout his career he has worked across professional football environments including West Bromwich Albion, Bolton Wanderers, Manchester City Academy, Fulham, Wigan Athletic and the England Under‑21 National team, as well as internationally with Al Jazira in the UAE. Alongside his clinical work in elite sport, Nick teaches on musculoskeletal and sports medicine programmes and has extensive experience in injection therapy. He also works in medico‑legal practice within sport and is an advisor to the Football Medicine & Performance Association. Nick recently authored an article in the FMPA magazine discussing the evolving role of hyaluronic acid injections in joint health, particularly in footballers experiencing degenerative joint changes. More at: https://www.fmpa.co.uk/podcasts/nick_worth_podcast/

Dr Shafik is a sport and musculoskeletal medicine physician currently serving as a Club Doctor to Chelsea FC and as Clinical Lead for the NHS Musculoskeletal Interface Clinical Assessment Service in South London. He has previously worked at Crystal Palace and Millwall in elite sport, alongside his NHS roles in musculoskeletal medicine, general practice and emergency medicine. Of course, he is the FMPA’s Senior Editor!

Dr Martin McIntyre is the founder and clinical lead at the Sports Injuries & Sports Medicine (SISM) Clinic in Castlebar Co Mayo, a centre that has become a hub for both elite athlete care and applied sports medicine research in Ireland. With a background in sports medicine and performance science, Martin has spent years working across high-performance environments in Gaelic games, rugby, and professional team sport, developing a particular focus on hamstring injury, recurrence, and return-to-play decision-making. Out of that work came the development of the Hamstring Risk and Injury Gauge, or HRIG – a hamstring-specific assessment and rehabilitation system designed to measure and train hamstring function in positions that closely reflect sprinting and real injury mechanisms. HRIG is now being used across elite football, rugby, athletics, and high-performance settings worldwide, supporting injury risk screening, readiness-to-train monitoring, and evidence-informed return-to-play. Topics covered: – Research underpinning HRIG – How isometric hamstring testing is changing the way we think about injury risk, rehabilitation, and performance. – How HRIG fits into the world of elite sport

Dr Nicky Keay is an exercise endocrinologist, author, researcher and dancer. Dr Keay is passionate about taking a personalised approach to hormone health with a view to optimising performance and recovery. She has a particular interest in relative energy deficiency in sport, or REDs, and is an Honorary Clinical Lecturer at University College London, as well as advisor to Scottish Ballet.

Dr. Kevin Cronin is a sonographer and lecturer at University College Dublin, where he leads the MSc Ultrasound programme. In 2023, he completed his PhD at UCD, which focused on using ultrasound to assess hamstring injuries in professional rugby players with Leinster Rugby. Kevin has published widely on hamstring injury and ultrasound in leading journals, exploring topics such as hamstring muscle architecture, the reliability of ultrasound imaging techniques, and novel approaches such as semi-automated image analysis. He has worked with elite athletes across rugby, Gaelic games, athletics, and professional football. He is co-director of a private ultrasound clinic based in Limerick city, Ireland called Insight Ultrasound.

Tay Albayrak is a UK Sports Institute Physio Leading the medical services for the World Class Slalom & Kayak Cross Program. Within this role he was part of Team GB at the Paris Olympics 2024. He also consults for the FA Senior Men’s Pathway. Prior to this he spent 3 years with Leeds United as Head of Academy Physiotherapy and 7 years at Tottenham Hotspur FC Academy. His elite sports physio career has been underpinned by 7 years in the NHS through various specialties and a degree in Sports & Exercise Science.

Des is Director of Sport and Physical Wellbeing at the University of Galway in Ireland, where he leads the strategic development and management of the university’s sports programs and facilities. Prior to joining the University, he spent nine years as Head of Sports Medicine and Sports Development at the Arsenal Football Club Academy. Prior to that, he was Head of Strength and Conditioning at Connacht Rugby and Fitness Education Manager at the Irish Rugby Football Union. Des also worked as a consultant for World Rugby, Brentford FC Academy, and the National Cricket Academy in India.

Dr Konrad Kozlowski is a recent graduate of the Miller School of Medicine at the University of Miami. He is also an athlete himself; he’s played tennis competitively since 5 years old and has competed in the NCAA Championships. He has a keen interest in sports medicine and was the lead author of the paper we will be discussing today on facial fractures in professional footballers. Peter Rosston is a PhD candidate in medicinal chemistry at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. His interests include clinical medicine and its intersection with sport. He is an avid fan and follower of football and played it in high school. He is the second author of the paper we will be discussing.

Dr Dan Fitzpatrick is a registrar in Sports and Exercise Medicine in the London Deanery and is based at the Institute of Sport, Exercise and Health. He has worked in elite football, rugby and marathon running. He has a particular interest in heat illness.

Dr Richard Porter currently works as a Specialty Doctor in Rheumatology and Acute Medicine within the Manchester Foundation Trust.  Outside of his NHS work, he is a Sports Medicine Doctor for Return2Play and an Independent Match Day Doctor with Premier League Rugby.  He also has roles with the England Para-football and Deaf Men’s Squads and is part of the examination panel for the Faculty of Sport and Exercise Medicine.   Richard recently authored a pivotal piece in the Football Medicine and Performance Association Magazine, shedding light on a topic that has flown under the radar for far too long: the prescribing trends and practices within elite football. In this episode, we’ll explore what the findings mean for footballers, medical teams, and the future of medication governance in elite sport.