Doc Murrell who provides all sorts of medical care for the players such as Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic and Serena Williams at the Dubai Duty Free championships says he deals mostly with colds | 7 Days Dubai
Several of the world’s top tennis players have had to fight the sniffles – after landing in Dubai with the ‘flu.
The Dubai doctor whose team provides all sorts of medical care for the players such as Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic and Serena Williams competing at the Dubai Duty Free championships revealed that most of the first week was spent helping rid them of colds.
Dr William Murrell, of Dubai Bone and Joint Clinic, told 7DAYS: “A lot of players have come here from Europe, or from colder countries, and a lot of them came in with the ‘flu. So we spent a lot of the time in the first week of the tournament just taking care of colds.”
The Dubai doctor who provides all sorts of medical care for the players such as Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic and Serena Williams at the Dubai Duty Free championships says he deals mostly with colds
Murrell’s team of doctors, physiotherapists and nurses are on hand to provide care round the clock during the two-week tennis extravaganza at Al Garhoud.
Although most of the top players have medical help of their own, Murrell and his team provide top to bottom care for the athletes.
The doctor, originally from the US, said: “With the grueling schedules that the players have, they also get a lot of over-use problems. So, either we try to give them acute care or sometimes they are not able to compete and we are here to make sure that everything is taken care of so that they are healthy.
“We provide medical care from top to bottom – dental problems, there are people who develop appendicitis, gall bladder problems, it can be muscularskeletal, heat injury, someone who’s got insomnia, someone who’s feeling down, really, it’s everything.
“The tour provides primary health care at each tournament but then there are sometimes problems they cannot handle. They are not licensed in some jurisdictions so they can’t write a prescription, for example. So in our team we have doctors, physiotherapists and nursing staff.
“We are here for them and for everyone else. If someone has a heart attack in the stands, which does happen, we have paramedics here.” Murrell and his Dubai Bone and Joint clinic team are familiar faces at Dubai’s big events like the Rugby 7s, Dubai Duty Free tennis, and Dubai Marathon.
He said: “Sometimes it’s just being there to have a mat for people to stretch on, sometimes we are actually doing treatments like we are doing here at the tennis.” There have been no major emergencies at this year’s tournament.
Murrell said: “I would say the amount of injuries is very low this year. Some things come along with the territory when you play for three-quarters of the year you get over-use problems and it’s up to us to help out to get them to a position where they are able to compete.”
There is also a constant vigil to ensure anything prescribed does not violate the strict doping laws surrounding sport. As for rubbing shoulders with the tennis elite, Murrell and his team have no favourites.
He said: “I meet some of the players, I pretty much met all the women competing last week. But as a doctor you try to maintain a certain separation because you really want to have a professional relationship with them.
“We don’t ask for autographs!”