Welcome to our brand-new newsletter series: ‘Meet the Speaker’, where we’ll be interviewing members of our speaker line-up for Therapy Expo 2025. It’s a chance to get to know the experts behind all the real insights, experience, and guidance presented at the show. In this month’s edition, we’ll be finding out more about Lennard Funk, Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon at The Arm Clinic, HCA The Wilmslow Hospital.  

Can you tell us a bit about your background of how you came to specialise in sports/soft tissue injuries of the shoulder? 

I guess it goes back to school, with an interest in sports.  I participated in many sports, particularly rugby. I was adequate at a lot of sports but excellent at nothing.  I went to university where I did a BSc in Biochemistry and Physiology with my research in Sports Performance.  I experienced sports injuries personally in that I fractured my spine playing rugby, had lost use of my right leg, had surgery and woke up able to move my leg.  This was nothing short of a miracle to me.  I also had a friend who dislocated his shoulder in the gym which was relocated immediately by a surgeon in the gym - another miracle.  I had a friend who was a physiotherapist, and her father was an orthopaedic surgeon. I was inspired to go down the route of either physiotherapy or orthopaedics.   I worked as a rehab assistant in a neuro-rehab unit and then started my training in physiotherapy. Before completing, I transferred to medicine, subsequently specialising in orthopaedics. As a consultant, I was invited to join Manchester Sports Medicine Clinic in 2002, which is when I started treating many athletes.  My research, publications and expertise has always been around sports and soft tissue injuries of the shoulder, both from the surgical as well as the rehabilitation aspects.   

What is the focus of your presentation at this year’s conference and why is this topic important now? 

The focus is around shoulder pain in middle age active shoulders.  This is probably one of the most common pathologies I see in my non-elite athletes.  More people are undertaking sports and continuing sports as they get older. Shoulder pain is the second most common problem after back pain. Almost every middle age sports person gets some degree of shoulder pain at some time. It is easily manageable before it gets severe enough to become surgical, but not widely known, understood or recognised. This is particularly of importance now due to the expansion of sports such as recreational padel, golf, cross-fit and its variants, climbing, cycling and triathlons. 

What is one thing you hope attendees will take away from the session? 

I hope the audience will learn to recognise and understand AC joint, rotator cuff and glenohumeral pathologies in these patients in their own practice and know which ones to refer and when. I’ll cover clinical assessment, common pathologies and diagnoses, with a discussion of treatment options including rehabilitation, injection therapies and surgery. 

Have there been any recent developments or research on shoulder rehabilitation that you find particularly exciting? 

The main research has been around a return to play criteria, and this has been refined by specialist sports therapists on an international level.  

What is one misconception about shoulder injuries that you often encounter and how do you address it? 

Over-diagnosis of “bony spur impingement” which we now recognise as an outdated concept.  How do you continue learning and evolving in your practice. 

Are there are any books, courses or mentors that have influenced you recently? 

I use Google Scholar alerts to keep me fully updated bi-weekly on recent relevant research publications relevant to my practice. I also find the specialist annual conferences to be beneficial and stay up to date.  

What do you enjoy most about working in this field? 

The people - the patients, staff and colleagues. I am very fortunate that I work in a fantastic hospital, HCA The Wilmslow Hospital, where we are all a big family. I am also fortunate to meet so many interesting patients in my job, who put their faith and trust in us to help them. Often their positivity and motivation to get better is what drives us. 

Outside of work, what is your favourite thing to do? 

I build and repair cars, having done mechanic training, detailing and bodywork repair courses. I have recently got more involved with dog training and taking up dog agility training with two of my dogs. I spend as much quality time with my family as possible, having reduced my academic commitments and travel in the last few years.  

Don’t miss out on Lennard’s session in Theatre A, 14:55 – 15:25 on Day 2 (27 Nov) of Therapy Expo 2025. Register now to book your place and hear from Lennard and the rest of our expert speaker line-up.