Soccer: Sports medic knows no borders

Celeste Geertsema talks to All Whites winger Leo Bertos. Photo / Supplied

Celeste Geertsema knows all about the inherent dangers of living in South Africa.

The now long-serving All Whites doctor was born in Krugersdorp between Rustenburg and Johannesburg and the bases for New Zealand at the Confederations Cup.

Later she studied in Cape Town before working in Natal where she went to work in a small rural hospital with a gun in her pocket during the day and under her pillow at night.

"At that time four of the doctors I was working with received death threats. It was an unusual situation," said the affable Geertsema who has long been around the All Whites and other New Zealand sporting teams. "It is not a secret that South Africa is not a safe country.

"On another occasion my sister was shot at, on another my father was in our local dairy when someone walked in and shot dead another customer. When I left here I felt really unsafe. Now, back here in this situation [as part of a sporting team] I feel safe.

"It is different for teams. The strict security measures ensure there are no problems. For individuals it is another story. You have to take responsibility. You don't go out at night under the influence expecting to be safe and, obviously, there are areas you avoid.

"South Africa is not alone in this. There are a lot of other places in the world where you don't feel safe."

Geertsema should know. Leaving her homeland in 1995 with her identical twin sister - also a medic - has been very much in the "have medical kit, will travel" mould.

After going to England on her OE, Geertsema returned to New Zealand to take up a five-month contract at Good Health Wanganui where twin Liesel was doing the same job.

"Those five months in New Zealand have now turned into 14 years," said Geertsema with no regrets. "I spent three winters as a ski patrol doctor at the Turoa ski field, then at Waiouru and later Burnham."

These days specialising in sports medicine - based at the adidas Clinic in Auckland since 2003 (as a registrar and now specialising in sports medicine) - the petite Geertsema, who admits she has "packed a fair bit into my 40 years", has, through initial contact with long-time sports medic Tony Edwards, spent long periods away from her adopted homeland.

She has been with New Zealand Football to Japan, Iran, Estonia, Hungary, Switzerland, Germany, England, Chile, Costa Rica, Venezuela, Australia, a handful of the island nations and now Tanzania, Botswana and South Africa. She was with the New Zealand Winter Olympics team in Torino, Italy in 2006, the same year she was a team doctor at the Melbourne Commonwealth Games.

"Such a schedule comes at a cost," she admits, "You certainly don't get rich but it is a life experience."

Geertsema and her long-time partner, an intensive care specialist, are off to Paris for four months from early September.

She leaves nothing to chance. Before this trip Geertsema read widely about swine flu and devised a contingency plan. She always packs a book but admits "I have yet to finish one".