Sakari Orava

Sakari Orava
Born 17 June 1945
Kokkola, Finland
Education University of Oulu
Years active 1980 to present
Known for Surgeon for top athletes

Medical career

Profession Surgeon
Institutions Hospital NEO
Specialism Sports medicine
Research Sports medicine

Sakari Orava (born 17 June 1945) is a Finnish sports medicine surgeon, physician, orthopedist, and professor.

Orava has clinics in Turku, Rome and Madrid.[1] He has been dubbed as "Dr. House of sports",[2] and has performed over 20,000 surgeries throughout his career. Orava was the head physician for the Finnish Olympic team in four consecutive Summer Olympics between 1988 and 2000.

High-profile operations

Orava's client list includes football clubs Real Madrid, Sevilla FC, FC Barcelona, Chelsea FC and Juventus.[2] Orava has also been working with AC Milan since 1986, and he performed a successful surgery on footballer David Beckham at his clinic in Turku in March 2010 to repair his torn achilles tendon.[3][4]

Orava has performed surgery on many other top athletes as well, including Haile Gebreselassie, Merlene Ottey, Andrea Barzagli, Didier Deschamps, Fábio Coentrão and Josep Guardiola.[1] Spanish runner, Marta Domínguez, referred to Orava as ”como díos” – like a God.[2]

Personal life

Orava lives in Naantali, Finland, and speaks Finnish, Swedish, English and German. He has a wife, Aira, and two children, Markus and Hanna-Maria. Orava was the 54 kg Finnish boxing champion in 1962.[1] During his time off he enjoys painting.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Susanne Hiltunen (21 August 2009). "Oravan nahassa". Rannikkoseutu (in Finnish).
  2. 1 2 3 "Beckhamin leikannut suomalaislääkäri "kuin jumala"" (in Finnish). Kauppalehti. 16 March 2010. Retrieved 25 September 2010.
  3. ↑ "Beckham eyes playing return after Achilles surgery". BBC News. 16 March 2010. Retrieved 25 September 2010.
  4. ↑ http://www.iltalehti.fi/jalkapallo/2010031511299237_jp.shtml
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