Sports medicine surgeon, Sakari Orava operated on football superstar David Beckham, on 15 March 2010 in Turku after Beckhams injury to his Achilles tendon.

It all began when the City of Oulu employed Sakari Orava as a sports doctor.

THE VIDEO clip shows how footballer David Beckham was injured. It looks harmless: Beckham receives the ball and prepares to cross it forward.

“A typical situation. The Achilles tendon is stretched and if it is strained or inflamed, it ruptures or tears. This happens most often in badminton,” explains orthopaedic surgeon Sakari Orava.

In his office, Orava demonstrates how the Achilles tendon snaps. The weight is on the back foot with the heel on the ground, and at the same time the body jerks forward slightly.

Many Finns watched the same video clip when the game in question, a win for Milan over Chievo, was broadcasted. No one is likely to have guessed that in 24 hours’ time, Orava would already have operated on the football superstar alongside Turku’s market square.

“Beckham was much perkier in the hospital than in the pictures showing him arriving in and leaving Turku.”

Beckham spent most of his day of arrival and surgery in bed. The bodyguards sought English-language newspapers. From time to time Orava would come and inspect the foot's condition.

“With his leg suspended he had to lie in bed, though he was able to move about a little on crutches. They ate hospital food for the most part.”

Years of experience

Orava is a world-leading sports surgeon. He has gathered experience both during his own sports career in the 1960s and then with sports organisations beginning in the 1970s. He has been the chief doctor for the Finnish team in four summer Olympics, and he has stood by the field in numerous Finnish, European and World Championships matches through to the 2000s.

“When you get around enough matches, you meet a huge number of coaches and doctors and forge relationships.”

But relationships alone do not form a career.

“I’ve operated and studied a great deal, and written hundreds of articles.”

In the 1970s Orava was already operating on Olympic athletes. In 1983, he lectured in Italy on Achilles tendon injuries, and the doors opened. At the beginning of the 1990s, he numbered world-class athletes from around the world among his clients, and the list kept growing.

A pensioner who operates on superstars

Over the last week, Orava has been swamped by journalists.

“I haven’t lost my nerve over this. It’s true that the Beckham fever has lasted longer than usual. Celebrity is a normal phenomenon in these matters,” Orava chuckles.

It doesn’t get much more celebrity than the Beckham couple. Of big-name footballers, Josep Guardiola, Pierluigi Casiraghi and David Trezeguet have fallen under Orava’s knife.

“I would say that over half of the Spanish, Italian and English Premier League teams include players I have operated on.”

Yet even with these big-name stars under his belt, Orava surely couldn’t have anticipated the media circus surrounding Beckham’s arrival.

Of the high-level sports patients, the majority have been general athletes, such as Merlene Ottey and Marta Dominguez – the latter of whom apparently referred to Orava as ‘como dios’, or ‘like a God’. A low profile works well for Orava’s customers.

“I may receive an NHL ice hockey player who has twisted his ankle. The club doesn’t necessarily want to communicate the matter to competitors in the middle of a season.”

Orava, 64, is a pensioner, but still manages to put in an almost 40-hour working week at his medical practice.

“If I just sit at home like a grumpy old man, the wife would be sure to find something to keep me busy.”

Not a step in 25 years

“I’m good at drawing so I thought that I would become a painter or graphic artist. Then in the army I was fascinated when a young doctor presented his profession, and I knew that this was it,” Orava says, snapping his fingers.

At the time Orava was an eager sportsman. He had won the Finnish youth boxing championships at the age of 17, having already picked up silver in the boys’ series.

“Once I’d begun my studies, I worked at the Oulu Sports Hall with my Bachelors in medicine, and many athletes came to present me their woes. It was an introductory course in sports medicine.”

Orava’s big break came when the town in which he studied offered him a position as a sports doctor. This launched his career.

Orava has continued to exercise his whole life long, although he hasn’t ran a step since 1985, the year before he began his long and fruitful cooperation with AC Milan. That was when he suffered a swollen in vertebral disk and a paralysed ankle nerve. Jogging and skiing fell by the wayside.

“But I’m in good shape. I lift weights, cycle and go swimming.”

MIKKO NIILES – STT
NICK BARLOW – HT
Lehtikuva - Jussi Nukari