Soccer: All Whites' female doctor a Cup first

Trailblazer: Celeste Geertsema making World Cup history. Photo / Steven McNicholl

The All Whites' doctor, Celeste Geertsema, will make World Cup history next month.

The Auckland sports medicine specialist has been told she will be the first female team doctor to attend the soccer World Cup finals, which have been played since 1930.

The validity of this is hard to check, but Fifa's chief medical officer, Jiri Dvorak, informed Dr Geertsema of her trailblazing status.

The 41-year-old, who was raised in Krugersdorp near Rustenburg, close to where the All Whites will be based in South Africa, admitted she was blown away to hear of her position in the world's biggest sport.

"Jiri Dvorak told me informally before a team physicians' meeting in South Africa in February and I wondered if it could be true," she said at the All Whites' base in Takapuna.

"When he actually announced it at the meeting, I realised it obviously checked out.

"It is absolutely amazing, to be honest, and for all the wrong reasons. Maybe this says something about the football culture, although I would like to think not.

"I think it's particularly nice for New Zealand, the first country to give women the vote. Maybe this will open a few minds and I won't be the last."

Dr Geertsema and her Christchurch-based identical twin sister Liesel, also a sports doctor, arrived in New Zealand in the mid-1990s.

Celeste Geertsema has been the All Whites' doctor since 2003 and says being a woman only proved troublesome in her opening assignment when the All Whites played Iran in Tehran.

Women were not even allowed to attend the match as spectators so special permission was needed from the Iranian authorities. "It really was a big deal," she recalls.

"To have a woman doctor in the changing rooms blew the cultural expectations. I think there was only one other woman in the whole stadium - a press liaison officer."

Dr Geertsema said playing at altitude would be a major factor at the World Cup but the All Whites' preparation, including a camp in Austria, would take care of that.

Another medical matter is dominating her days for now. Fifa, mindful of players collapsing and even dying during games, has ordered teams to conduct electrocardiograms and echocardiograms on all players and study their heart and family histories.

"It is taking a lot of organisation and is not a short process."