Behind the Badge: Gerhard Mostert, Lead Physio

10 November 1991, Eden Gardens, Calcutta. South Africa’s cricketers, led by Clive Rice, face India in the country’s first official game for more than 20 years following the lifting of their apartheid suspension.

It’s reported more than 90,000 people saw history in the making crammed inside India’s oldest cricketing arena.

The game also changed the course of history for teenage physiotherapy student Gerhard Mostert, watching on TV from his home in Kroonstad, South Africa.

“I was a rugby man at the time,” recalled ‘Mozzie’ from his physio room in Edgbaston, where he’s helping Hassan Ali through his post-op rehab.

“I was in the Cheetahs Academy (Bloemfontein’s rugby union side) and had played in their Seconds. I was a flanker. I was a bit small for a flanker, so they tried playing me as hooker.

“But watching that game in India, the crowd, the passion. It was amazing. For my whole life we’d been in apartheid. I’d not seen anything like this game before and I imagined what it would be like to be a part of the South African team, to be a physio in that stadium.

“I thought…that would be a cool job.”

Gerhard graduated from the University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, with a degree in physiotherapy and moved to the West Midlands in 1999 after his wife saw an agency advertisement appealing for young doctors to work in UK hospitals.

He moved on an initial one year visa. Twenty-five years later, he remains in Birmingham and is a self-proclaimed “adopted Brummie”.

“It was daunting. I couldn’t speak English, I could just about say ‘yes’ and ‘no’. But one year turned into two years and in 2001 I saw Warwickshire were recruiting for a physio. Dennis Amiss (then Chief Executive) offered me the job.

“He said I don’t want you to do it for six months and disappear, I want you to commit for a few years. I said OK. I thought back to that game in Calcutta. I’d achieved what I wanted: to be a physio in professional cricket.

“Physiotherapy 23 years ago is very different to today!

“Players would turn up in January for pre-season but now they report back in mid-November. There was no skin screening, cardiac screening, nothing like that. We didn’t really know the demands of the game on the body, distances they’d run, speeds they’d run at, maturation rates for younger players.

“We have more information now. We try to understand each player’s body, to prevent injury, not just helping them recovery from injury.

“We know if a bowler bowls 20 overs in a game, they may cover 20km a day. That gives you good guidance to where they need to be during rehab from injury before they are ready to play again.

“The game is more demanding now, but the baseline fitness of youngsters is lower. I don’t think people are naturally as fit as they were 20 years ago. Children are on electronics more, parents drive children to school instead of walking, less bike riding, less playing outside. We need to crank it up so they can compete in the professional sporting arena.

“But it’s a fine balance, a game of chess. You want to push your players to get the most out of them, so they achieve their potential. But we want to look after them. We can’t demand too much as they will breakdown with an injury, possibly a long term injury.”

Gerhard, aged 52 and a father-of-three, is a fully-qualified chartered physiotherapist and has post graduate diplomas in injection therapy, advanced medical practice and orthopaedic medicine.

At Warwickshire, his job is to ensure the Academy and First Team players are in optimal condition to take the field and perform at their best.

He added: “It’s a demanding job. But a rewarding one. I’ll see someone limping off the pitch. They can’t walk, and then you help them to recover and perform again.

“Boys and girls in the Academy, you see how they turn up as children and you help them turn into professional, even international cricketers. In my time here I’ve seen a few of those guys, that’s brilliant to see.

“But day to day I’m working with players who are injured, they’re not playing. Naturally, they can be down psychologically.

“And there will be the odd player for whom you’ve tried everything and can’t get them back on the park. That’s hard. Because you know playing cricket is their passion, their life, they want it more than anything. But sometimes you can’t do it.”

So after more than 20 years, what does being a Bear mean to Mozzie?

“It certainly doesn’t feel like 23 years,” he added. “There are good and bad times, it all depends how the team is doing. We feel the losses like the players.

“People talk about the Bears family, if someone else is struggling you find it difficult as well. But the good years are brilliant. You get moments that money can’t buy, the elation of winning a trophy.

“It can take over your life sometimes, especially in the summer. It’s not a nine to fiver. But I’m lucky because I’m doing a job I truly enjoy. I go to work and it doesn’t feel I’m going to work. I’m working with nice people, that’s what makes it special.

“You form good bonds. In cricket, 99 per cent of the people are brilliant, easy to work with them, hard work but fun.”

He looks over and points jokingly at Hassan who’s icing his elbow. You do get the odd one per cent!

They both start laughing. Good bonds.