Knife in the fast lane with Bill Ribbans sports surgeon to the stars

When Prof Mackay’s great friend and mentor Professor Bill Ribbans was in Scotland recently at our 10-year InternalBrace celebration we took the chance to record an episode with him for our Surgical Goals podcast.

Over his 40-year career, Bill has operated on some of the world’s best-known sports stars and he has recently encapsulated his 40 years of experience in a must-read book – Knife in the Fast Lane. Part autobiography, part commentary, and full of amazing anecdotes Bill explains that as well as looking back over his career it also looks into the future of sports medicine and discusses some of the legal minefields and ethical dilemmas that face sports docs in today’s professional atmosphere.

From the age of 3 when Bill found himself a regular in the press-box with his sports journalist Dad he has loved sport. He himself played rugby at county level and still loves the game while being an active advocate now for change to halt the increasing number of players being diagnosed with early-onset dementia.

We wish we had had more time with Bill as he has so many incredible stories to tell but we will invite him back for more. In the meantime, you can download the episode and listen on your favourite player here