Patrick Bradley always knew his future lay in sport. A schoolboy player for Manchester United, he managed to play football while keeping up his schoolwork and completing his A Levels. So when a knee injury dashed his dreams of becoming a professional footballer he decided to train as a physiotherapist.
Patrick, said: “Although I was at Manchester United I still wanted to continue studying. The youth team coach Eric Harrison agreed to let me carry on playing for the A and B team while doing my A Levels.”But then when I was 18 I got injured and it took 18 months to find out what the problem was. I had torn my cruciate ligament. By that time I was already studying physiotherapy at Birmingham University, but that was my football career over. To be honest I don’t think I would ever have been good enough to play at the very top level.”
He got his first job as a physio where he met his wife Tracy – also a qualified physiotherapist. By 1997 the couple had married and decided to open their own private practice. “We both had become a bit disgruntled by the NHS and we really wanted to be our own bosses so we took the leap and set up on our own,” Patrick said, within a year the business took off, the couples first daughter Kiera was born and Patrick was asked to treat the Rochdale Hornets and Oldham Bears rugby league teams. He said “Then one day I got a phone call out of the blue from England RFU asking if I would join the team working with the Under 18s teams initially. In the first year I went on tour with them to Australia. That team included players like Jonny Wilkinson and Mike Tindall. It was a fantastic experience". Within 18 months Patrick had been invited to work for the RFU’s elite performance department.
That meant he would be part of the dedicated medical team treating all of the countries elite rugby players including the first team, Saxons, under 20s and the 18s.
Today he juggles running a busy private physiotherapy practice in Rochdale with his wife Tracy along with being one of the team of physios for England’s top rugby players. Over the years he has treated stars including Jonny Wilkinson, Mike Tindall, Andrew Sheridan, Ben Youngs, Courteney Laws and Ian Balshaw to name but a few.
His work with the RFU takes him away from his home and his practice for around 100 days each year as every time the rugby teams meet up for training they have to have at least one doctor and physio on hand at all times. Patrick and the medical team also travel with the players when they go abroad on tour. He said:” The tours are great. We all really bond well as a team as we are all living and working together.” Patrick believes his work with the RFU complements his private practice and helps his own patients as he has to keep up to date with all the latest medical developments. “Working with elite athletes you have to really be on top of your game and constantly update your skills and knowledge.”
“To be honest the way we treat athletes is not dissimilar to how we would treat an ordinary patient. But it is when it comes to the rehabilitation side that the differences come in. Somebody who wants to recover from an injury so they can get back to work is not going to rehabilitate in the same way as an athlete who wants to get back to the top of his sport.”
Through his work with the RFU Patrick has to be up-to-date with the latest emergency pitch-side response techniques in case a player suffers a serious injury during a match. And he has also trained in all the latest acupuncture techniques, administering steroid injections and orthopaedic knowledge. He said “With all the top athletes nothing is left to chance. Everything from their diet, nutrition, hydration, weight and even sleep patterns are monitored. Doctors and physios use performance analysis to work together to monitor each player and look at their injuries. “The players are filmed in training so that if they are injured we can analyse the injury and the way they play to see exactly what the problem is – to check if it is a problem with their gait or the way they pass the ball.
“If the injury is caused by a technique problem we can work with the coaching staff to help the players change their technique to prevent the injury from recurring.”
Back at the Rochdale practice, Bradley Associates, Patrick and Tracy are busy working with the latest techniques to treat their own patients. Tracy worked part-time while their three children – Kiera, ,Milly and Keelan, were small. But now that Keelan has started school, she is updating her own skills and bringing in elements of pilates and back pain management into the practice. Patrick said:”We are hoping to expand. We already have a gym where our patients can train with a physio on hand to monitor their rehabilitation.”We have extended our rehab facilities and created a studio where Tracy can run pilates classes and educate our patients on how to manage their injuries, such as back problems.”
“We now have some of the best facilities within the North of England and hope to continue to expand and grow in the future.”
Source: Lancashire living magazine 2008.
