Jonty, 18.

Jonty comes from a very sporty family of athletes. His mother competes for Great Britain as a Masters athlete and is a current World Champion at 400m and 800m in her age group, both his parents coach athletics, and his sister competes in the 400m hurdles, ranked 4th in England at under-23 level. Doing a lot of sport was inevitable.

In his early teens Jonty was a squad gymnast training twenty hours a week with Woking Gym Club, ranked 12th in the UK for long jump, and a hurdler for Guildford & Godalming Athletics Club. He and his family now realise his body type, strong but not flexible, was not ideal for gymnastics, and he was suffering hip, knee and ankle problems from the pressure of training.

At 13, while performing at a high level, he was injured landing from a vault at a regional gymnastics competition in September 2013. MRI scans of both knees that December showed osteochondritis dissecans, and he was referred to Mr Trikha in January 2014.

Mr Trikha advised him to pull back from sport and avoid impact from jumps and landings. Another orthopaedic consultant suggested he might need an operation, as there was an unstable lesion on his right knee, and with his condition deteriorating Jonty was advised to stop sport altogether and prepare for surgery. It was a worrying time for an energetic child used to training every day.

In November 2014, after another consultation and round of scans, Mr Trikha decided against an operation: the scans showed improvements in the left knee with a healed fragment, and the right knee was showing signs of healing too. His belief that natural growth would repair Jonty’s knees was proving to be the right decision.

By February 2015 the left knee had healed completely and the right was nearly resolved. With a course of physiotherapy Jonty gradually returned to sport. He did not go back to gymnastics, but took the school records for 100m, 400m and long jump at St George’s College, competed for Guildford & Godalming’s 4 × 100m relay team at the London Olympic Stadium and played rugby. Now 18, he has just completed his first year at Birmingham University, where he competes at 400m for the university athletics team.

“Mr Trikha has always been very supportive of my situation over the last 5 years. He recognised my love of sport and I will always be grateful to him for making the decision not to operate on my right knee. He had faith in natural repair and he wanted to avoid me having problems later. So, thank you Mr Trikha for looking after me. I feel happy to know I can come back to you if I need to!”Jonty

“I am delighted that Jonty has made such a good recovery and is back to competing at a high level. In cases such as Jonty’s I always prefer to see how the body heals on its own, with the support of physiotherapy.”Mr Paul Trikha