30 Under 30 2025

How sports medicine experts fix India's top athletes

Mumbai's Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital has been the go-to for most of India's top sportspersons, many among them part of the current Olympic contingent

Published: Jul 29, 2024 03:32:44 PM IST
Updated: Jul 30, 2024 10:36:59 AM IST

Dr Dinshaw Pardiwala is treating a patient at the Department of Sports Medicine at Mumbai’s Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital.
Image: Courtesy Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital, MumbaiDr Dinshaw Pardiwala is treating a patient at the Department of Sports Medicine at Mumbai’s Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital. Image: Courtesy Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital, Mumbai

In early 2020, a young man stepped out of a cab in front of Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital in suburban Mumbai. A security guard immediately stopped him as he was carrying something resembling a spear. The man, smiling and calm, told the guard he wanted to meet Dr Dinshaw Pardiwala of the hospital. Concerned, the guard contacted his boss, who called his boss and the CEO Dr Santosh Shetty. Shetty prompted the guard to find out the man’s name. Neeraj Chopra, the guard relayed to Shetty. “‘Please take him to Dr Pardiwala,’ I asked the guard. Neeraj, after his elbow surgery and initial rehab at our department of sports medicine, had promised Dinshaw the javelin if he qualified for Tokyo Olympics. He had just done that in South Africa. So, he carried his javelin in a taxi straight from the Mumbai airport,” says Dr Shetty.  

Chopra’s javelin is mounted on the wall above the window in Dr Pardiwala’s examination room, part of his two-room office, bigger than the average Mumbai flat, on the first floor of the hospital that houses the country’s most sought-after sports medicine department. A boxing glove signed by Olympic bronze medal-winning MC Mary Kom stands like a trophy in one corner, a badminton racquet framed along with photographs of Olympic bronze medal-winning shuttler Saina Nehwal in action hangs alongside autographed jerseys of Indian cricketers Ravindra Jadeja and Suresh Raina, and Sri Lankan pacer Lasith Malinga. There are also numerous other memorabilia sent as a sign of gratitude by champion wrestlers, boxers, athletes, footballers, tennis players, who have been nursed back to match fitness at this hospital’s sports medicine department.  

From the T20 World Cup-winning India wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant, who suffered a career-threatening car crash a couple of years ago, to the double Olympic medal-winning badminton player PV Sindhu, from wrestling Olympic bronze medallist Vinesh Phogat to India’s tennis legend Leander Paes, also an Olympic medal-winner, almost every top athlete in India has turned to the Centre for Sports Medicine at Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital whenever they have suffered any injury or niggle.   

Also read: As stigma fades, Paris Olympians prioritise mental health   

What makes it so sought-after? 

Today, there are plenty of reputable hospitals in India with a sports medicine and sports science unit but none, despite some success, are as successful as this one. Almost every decent sports medicine and sports science facility in the country can match them on services, infrastructure, equipment and technology, says Vaibhav Daga, 48, head of sports science and rehabilitation as well as a sports medicine consultant at Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital. “It is our expertise and knowledge that isn’t easily matched by the rest,” he says. 
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Add to that the personal connect that most of the team has with athletes. Daga worked with the Indian cricket team and multiple Indian Premier League (IPL) franchises before joining this sport medicine facility in 2017. Associate consultant for sports medicine, Ashutosh Nimse, worked with the Mumbai Cricket Association and Mumbai Indians before joining Daga’s team. 

They also hold the first-mover advantage, having started in 2010 at a time when comprehensive sports medicine and rehab facilities were either only minimally present or lacking in India. The department, which positioned itself as a “one-stop shop” for injured elite, competitive, and recreational athletes, started out with some overseas physiotherapists, such as South African physio Heath Matthews (who has tended to India’s cricketing stalwarts including Sachin Tendulkar before joining the Kokilaben team and has his own thriving sports physio practice in Mumbai now) and then added experts like Ashish Kaushik from the National Cricket Academy. 

Today, the sports medicine team comprises over 40 professionals who manage all aspects of sports medicine, sports injuries, and sports performance enhancement, said Dr Pardiwala from Paris, where he is accompanying the Indian Olympic contingent as their chief medical officer—the first ever in over 100 years of India’s participation at the summer games.

Another thing that works in their favour is their ongoing partnership with multiple teams and federations, including the BCCI, across various sports both at international and national levels and with franchise format leagues. This helps as most athletes already know the experts. “Personal connections with many athletes make them trust and choose us over others,” added Daga.

Dr Dinshaw Pardiwala, at one of the Paris, Olympic's venue.
Image: courtesy Dr Dinshaw PardiwalaDr Dinshaw Pardiwala, at one of the Paris, Olympic's venue. Image: courtesy Dr Dinshaw Pardiwala

The star factor 

After the initial treatment post-car crash, Pant reached out to Dr Pardiwala, whom he famously called the “Miracle Man” recently for helping him play cricket again when most medical experts had doubts if he would walk again. When wrestler Vinesh Phogat tore her ACL, she dialled Dr Pardiwala. There are many more. Each autographed photograph, sports equipment and memorabilia on display in Dr Pardiwala’s office is evidence of the role he has played in the athlete’s return to the sport as well as subsequent successes, including Chopra’s historic javelin gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics.  

“Dr Pardiwala”, said each of the six doctors, sports physios and nutritionists I interviewed for this feature as the main difference between this sports medicine unit and the rest. The 52-year-old is the director for arthroscopy, sports orthopaedics and shoulder service and head at the hospital’s Centre for Sports Medicine. 

For his part, Dr Pardiwala brushed aside the suggestion, saying, “Sports medicine and the management of sports injuries require a multi-specialty team approach. An integrated approach is critical in the early return to sports after an injury and involves the active participation of multiple specialists, including sports medicine physicians and surgeons, physiotherapists, strength and conditioning coaches, mental wellness experts, and sports nutritionists.”      

He acknowledged he has helped several world-class athletes through their injury crisis and added that athletes come to them because the experts at the Centre for Sports Medicine understand sports and athletes. “Sportsmen trust our services, confident that we will do everything possible to get them back to their game quickly. With a proven track record spanning [almost] 15 years, we consistently and reliably deliver favourable outcomes,” said Dr Pardiwala. 

Athlete is being trained for rehab at the department of sports medicine at Mumbai’s Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hopsital .Athlete is being trained for rehab at the department of sports medicine at Mumbai’s Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hopsital .

Fixing sports injuries 

More than 70 percent of the injuries among sportspersons are related to knees and shoulders, followed by wrist, ankles, hips, back and hamstrings. These are also problem areas for most people. But a professional athlete’s injury is never approached in the same way as the common man’s even if it is the exact same. Because an athlete’s needs and goals are very different, says Daga. “The first step in any injury is determining the exact diagnosis: What internal structure is injured, and how badly is it injured? Based on this, we can decide the treatment and prognosis. Many sports injuries require only rest, followed by physiotherapy. Some injuries may warrant surgery followed by rehabilitation,” said Dr Pardiwala.  

This is where the sports physio comes in. A sports physio is the first point of contact for any injured athlete, said Dr Shreyash Gajjar, 52, consultant (unit lead) for sports orthopaedics, arthroscopy and trauma at Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital. The physio talks to the athlete and the athlete’s personal trainer and physio, assesses the injury and sends the athlete for tests to get a correct diagnosis. After this, a plan of treatment and rehab is drawn up by the team after discussions with the athlete, their trainer and physio, with the ultimate goal being helping the athlete return to sport safely in the quickest time possible. It is the collective brainstorming, discussion and coordination between the team about the cases that come to them that ultimately leads to a successful rehab and return to sport for athletes.    

During rehab, the athlete moves through three stages: Early recovery (basic restoration of movements), intermediate recovery (strengthening), and final recovery (sport-specific drills). Each part is handled by a specific team and continuous assessments are conducted by a sports biomechanist based on which an athlete’s workload is progressively increased until the athlete returns to the field of play.  

At the ongoing Olympic Games, there are a good number of Indian athletes thanking their sports medicine doctors and physios for helping them make it to Paris. Some, however, can do it in person as Dr Pardiwala, Pant’s “Miracle Man”, is in the Olympic Village completely swamped, he tells me over text, as India’s chief medical officer.  

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