Private and VIP care · Professional footballers
Built around the fixture list, not the other way round
Professional footballers and team-sport athletes come to London Cartilage Clinic for cartilage, meniscus, ligament and tendon problems. Sessions are closed and imaging is on the same visit.
How a private clinic day works
Reviewed byProfessor Paul Lee MBBch, FRCS (Tr & Orth), PhDCartilage and joint preservation expertiseWho this page is for
A footballer with a knee problem has two clocks running: the joint and the season. London Cartilage Clinic sees players, and the athletes in other team sports who share the same pressures, in closed clinic sessions so that nobody is waiting in a shared room, the scan happens directly before the consultation, and the return-to-play conversation starts on day one, with the people who manage your training load if you want them there.
Nobody is named on this page or anywhere else on the site. That is deliberate.
What you bring with you
The pressures the clinic plans around
The calendar is fixed
Matches, travel and international windows do not move for an appointment. Clinic sessions are set around them, early or late in the day where that helps.
You decide who is involved
You are the patient, and the plan is yours. If you want your club doctor, physiotherapist or performance staff involved, they can be, from the first conversation or later. Nothing is shared with anyone you have not nominated.
Nothing should reach the press before you decide
The clinic is closed to other patients for your session. No names are used in any public material, and your visit is known only to the team caring for you.
How the clinic adapts
In the order it happens
- Step 1
A closed session at 66 Harley Street
The clinic is reserved for you for part or all of a day, subject to availability. You arrive, you are seen, you leave.
- Step 2
Imaging directly before the consultation
Where a scan is needed it is scheduled immediately before you see Professor Lee, so the decision is made on fresh pictures in a single visit.
- Step 3
Your club in the loop, if you want it
On your instruction, findings, the treatment plan and the rehabilitation milestones can go to the people who manage your load, so there is one plan rather than two. Without it, they stay with you.
- Step 4
Treatment timed to the season
Injection-based options can often sit inside a short gap in the calendar. Where surgery is the right answer it is planned around the fixture list, with the club if you choose.
What we most often see
The problems professional footballers and team-sport athletes bring to the clinic
Every treatment decision follows a consultation with Professor Lee. These are starting points, not a menu.
66 Harley Street
Closed for your session
Private clinic days
A closed clinic, built around you and your schedule
For patients who need discretion, or simply need everything to happen in one visit, the clinic can be set aside for half a day or a full day. You arrive, you are scanned, you see Professor Lee, and you leave with a decision.
- The clinic, reserved for youHalf a day or a full day at 66 Harley Street with no other patients booked, subject to availability.
- Scan directly before you are seenImaging is aligned to the consultation so Professor Lee decides on fresh pictures in one visit.
- One coordinator throughoutDiary, records, transfers and The Landmark London handled by a single person you can reach directly.
Authority
The surgeon you are choosing
Patients who could go anywhere are choosing between a small number of world specialists. Your consultation, your treatment and your follow-up are all with Professor Paul Lee.
- Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon and medical engineer, PhD
- Internationally published in cartilage repair and joint preservation, cited over 1,000 times
- Lead of an ICRS teaching centre for cartilage regeneration
- Joint-replacement outcomes recorded in the National Joint Registry, within the expected range
- Member of the British Association for Surgery of the Knee (BASK)
Professional footballers
Questions we are asked
Does my club have to be involved?
No. You are the patient and the decision is yours. If you want your club doctor or physiotherapist involved, the imaging, findings and plan are shared with them on your instruction. If you would rather keep it private, including from the club, that is how it stays.
Will anyone else be in the clinic during my visit?
For a closed clinic session the clinic is reserved for you. Only the team caring for you is present. Sessions are subject to availability and arranged through a single coordinator.
How quickly can I be seen?
Closed sessions are arranged around your calendar and the clinic diary. Speak to the clinic directly and the coordinator will tell you what is possible for the dates you have.
Do you treat athletes from sports other than football?
Yes. Rugby, cricket, hockey and other team-sport athletes bring the same pressures and are looked after in the same way.
Also looked after here
Other patients who need the same discretion
Each page describes a different set of pressures and the way the clinic adapts to them.
Golfers
Tour windows, long travel and joints that have to hold a swing. Treatment timed between events.
How the clinic adapts
Screen and stage
Production schedules, physical roles and a public profile. Care that stays out of the frame.
How the clinic adapts
Executives and public figures
A diary with no gaps, constant travel and a reputation to protect. Decided in one visit.
How the clinic adaptsPrivate and VIP care
Speak to a person, in confidence
Tell the clinic what you need and the dates you have. A single coordinator takes it from there, including a closed session where that is right for you.
Call 0330 043 2571Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm. Outside those hours, send the form and the coordinator will call you back.