Smith+Nephew takes sports injury message to Wimbledon

A gentle game of tennis is great for health and wellbeing but, particularly for players competing at the highest level, injuries are an ever-present and potentially career-ending threat.

It makes sense then that Smith+Nephew, a specialist in advanced wound care and sports medicine, has said it will sponsor tennis players participating in this year’s Wimbledon championships, which are already in the qualifying stages, with the main contest due to start on 1st July.

The company unveiled its new Life Unlimited campaign this week, highlighting the ways its medical devices and implants can help athletes recover from injury quickly and get back to the sport they love.

It is especially pertinent this year, as tennis fans in the UK wait to hear whether home-grown champion Andy Murray – who has lifted the Wimbledon trophy twice – will be fit enough to participate in this year’s championship after suffering a back injury.

A post on X by the ATP Tour governing body suggested 37-year-old Murray had withdrawn from what would be his last Wimbledon, but was later deleted and there’s been no confirmation either way at the time of writing.

Tennis is somewhat unusual among sports in that injuries can occur to just about any part of the body, reflecting the extraordinary degree of athleticism needed to compete at the highest level.

Two common injuries that tennis players suffer are rotator cuff tears in the shoulder and meniscus tears in the knee, although, in Murray’s case the current problem is a spinal cyst. He has previously had surgery on his right hip, right knee, and lower back.

In its campaign, Smith+Nephew is highlighting its Regeneten Bioinductive Implant used to repair rotator cuff injuries – which affect around a million people each year – and the Fast-Fix family of meniscal repair devices.

First launched in 2014, Regeneten has been used to treat more than 100,000 patients and is a collagen-based implant that encourages healing and can help to form new tendon-like tissue to augment the existing tendon. Meanwhile, Fast-Fix has a three-decade-long heritage in repairing meniscal tears and has been used in hundreds of thousands of procedures.

“Both Smith+Nephew and the players participating in Wimbledon share a common thread as leaders in their respective fields and being among the best at what they do,” said Christie Van Geffen, head of global marketing for sports medicine at Smith+Nephew.

“It’s an honour to sponsor players competing in this year’s championship and we look forward to helping athletes all over the world get back to performing at the highest level.”

Image by davidkenny91 from Pixabay