Having operated on big names at the top of their game including Michael Schumacher and Greg Rutherford, Ribbans has seen how revolutions in sports science have increased risk
“It’s incredible that sports medicine has only been recognised the last 15 years,” Bill Ribbans says as he reflects on his four decades of work as an orthopaedic surgeon and doctor across eight professional sports. Ribbans has offered surgical or medical care to Olympic and world champions – from Greg Rutherford and Paula Radcliffe to Michael Schumacher and Jessica Ennis-Hill – while also working for the
British boxing Board of Control, Northampton Saints, Northamptonshire
Cricket club and England’s rugby union team.
At his clinic in Northampton, Ribbans is calm and eloquent whether detailing urgent issues of player welfare in rugby or describing the ethical issues a doctor encounters in professional sport as they come under pressure from managers and coaches in an increasingly litigious world. Ribbans works for the NHS, and at his own private practice, and it is striking he should have done so much in sport for free.