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Professor Nicola Maffulli In The Evening Standard...Field Of Play Doctor For Wrestling Tournament At The Olympics 2012

"The hope is always that the athletes have an injury-free Games and realise their dreams.  I'm a former competitive wrestler (a veteran of the European Championships) but my future was in medicine.  For people for whom it's their life, they experience this unique euphoria competing in the Olympics.  You're treated like royalty but you can go from being top of the world to the bottom and that's very difficult to cope with.  Another issue is meeting the weight requirements.  People might be three kilos above their weight so they'll starve themselves or not drink, which creates problems.  I realised I was never going to be good enough to compete in the Olympics.  So this is the next best thing." 

Most common injury?  "The most common wrestling injury is facial, or if someone pokes you in the eye.  A fracture, ligamentous injury or eye injury could blow a contestant's chance of competing."

Tickets?: "No tickets.  But I'll be in the thick of things."

The Wrestling Tournament is being held at the ExCel Centre from 5 - 12 August 2012.

This article appeared in London Evening Standard on Wednesday 16 July 2012.