Hans-Wilhelm Müller-Wohlfahrt (; born 12 August 1942 in Leerhafe, today part of Wittmund,

East Frisia East Frisia or East Friesland (german: Ostfriesland; ; stq, Aastfräislound) is a historic region in the northwest of Lower Saxony, Germany. It is primarily located on the western half of the East Frisian peninsula, to the east of West Frisia ...

) is a German

orthopedist Orthopedic surgery or orthopedics ( alternatively spelt orthopaedics), is the branch of surgery concerned with conditions involving the musculoskeletal system. Orthopedic surgeons use both surgical and nonsurgical means to treat musculoskeletal ...

. He gained recognition for his roles as

Germany national football team The Germany national football team (german: link=no, Deutsche Fußballnationalmannschaft) represents Germany in men's international football and played its first match in 1908. The team is governed by the German Football Association (''Deuts ...

doctor (1995–2018) and club doctor of

Bayern Munich Fußball-Club Bayern München e. V. (FCB, ), also known as FC Bayern (), Bayern Munich, or simply Bayern, is a German professional sports club based in Munich, Bavaria. It is best known for its professional men's football team, which pla ...

(1977–2015, 2017–2020). He initially resigned after him and his medical staff were blamed for a 3–1 loss to

Porto Porto or Oporto () is the second-largest city in Portugal, the capital of the Porto District, and one of the Iberian Peninsula's major urban areas. Porto city proper, which is the entire municipality of Porto, is small compared to its metropo ...

in a

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competi ...

match during the tenure of coach

Pep Guardiola Josep "Pep" Guardiola Sala (; born 18 January 1971) is a Spanish professional football manager and former player, who is the current manager of club Manchester City. He is considered one of the greatest managers of all time and holds the ...

, but he rejoined after the reappointment of

Jupp Heynckes Josef "Jupp" Heynckes (; born 9 May 1945) is a German retired professional footballer and manager. The majority of his player career was as a striker for Borussia Mönchengladbach in its golden era of the 1960s and '70s, when they won many nati ...

as head coach. Having already resigned from his position at the

in 2018, his second and final resignation at Bayern Munich also came into effect on the 30th of June 2020. Many of the German doctor's treatments are seen as controversial, including using injections of a substance called Hyalart, extracted from the crest of cockerels, which is claimed to help lubricate knee injuries and take away the pain. He has also injected Myo-Melcain, which is the painkiller

Procaine Procaine is a local anesthetic drug of the amino ester group. It is most commonly used in dental procedures to numb the area around a tooth and is also used to reduce the pain of intramuscular injection of penicillin. Owing to the ubiquity ...

in a honey solution, or Actovegin into patients' muscles. Müller-Wohlfahrt's use of

homeopathic Homeopathy or homoeopathy is a pseudoscientific system of alternative medicine. It was conceived in 1796 by the German physician Samuel Hahnemann. Its practitioners, called homeopaths, believe that a substance that causes symptoms of a dise ...

medicine to treat players is also controversial.

Players treated

He has treated many footballers and athletes including

Jürgen Klinsmann Jürgen Klinsmann (, born 30 July 1964) is a German professional football manager and former player. Klinsmann played for several prominent clubs in Europe including VfB Stuttgart, Inter Milan, Monaco, Tottenham Hotspur, and Bayern Munich. He ...

Ronaldo Ronaldo is a Portuguese given name equivalent to the English Ronald. It became a common name in all Portuguese-speaking countries, being also prevalent in Italy and Spanish-speaking countries. People Notable people known as Ronaldo include: As ...

and

Jonathan Woodgate Jonathan Simon Woodgate (born 22 January 1980) is an English football manager and former player who is currently the First Team Coach at EFL Championship club, Middlesbrough. Woodgate began his career at Middlesbrough but moved to Leeds Uni ...

, Kelly Holmes, Maurice Greene and

Usain Bolt Usain St. Leo Bolt, , (; born 21 August 1986) is a retired Jamaican sprinter, widely considered to be the greatest sprinter of all time. He is the world record holder in the 100 metres, 200 metres, and 4 × 100 metres relay. An eight-ti ...

. He helped cure

Michael Owen Michael James Owen (born 14 December 1979) is an English former professional footballer who played as a striker for Liverpool, Real Madrid, Newcastle United, Manchester United and Stoke City, as well as for the England national team. Since r ...

's hamstring problems in time to play at the

Euro 2000 The 2000 UEFA European Football Championship, also known as Euro 2000, was the 11th UEFA European Championship, a football tournament held every four years and organised by UEFA, the sport's governing body in Europe. The finals tournament was ...

tournament and has also helped Owen's

Liverpool Liverpool is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the List of English districts by population, 10th largest English district by population and its E ...

and

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

colleague,

Steven Gerrard Steven George Gerrard (born 30 May 1980) is an English professional football manager and former player, who most recently managed club Aston Villa. Described by pundits and fellow professionals as one of his generation's greatest players, ...

and

Harry Kewell Harry Kewell (born 22 September 1978) is an Australian association football coach, manager and former player. His most recent role as a club manager was at English National League side Barnet, and he is currently a first team coach at Celtic ...

. Darren Gough and

Alex Tudor Alex Jeremy Tudor (born 23 October 1977) is an English former professional cricketer who spent two spells with Surrey County Cricket Club as well as playing for Essex. He is a right-handed batsman and a right-arm fast bowler. He was awarded the ...

, Essex cricketers, have benefited from the German doctor's pioneering treatments. On 6 May 2009 it was announced that he was helping Akpo Sodje recover from a longstanding hamstring problem. José María Olazábal, the 1994

US Masters The Masters Tournament (usually referred to as simply The Masters, or the U.S. Masters outside North America) is one of the four major championships in professional golf. Scheduled for the first full week of April, the Masters is the first maj ...

golf champion was suffering from the crippling effects of

rheumatoid arthritis Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a long-term autoimmune disorder that primarily affects joints. It typically results in warm, swollen, and painful joints. Pain and stiffness often worsen following rest. Most commonly, the wrist and hands are inv ...

when he visited Müller-Wohlfahrt but was able to win at Augusta again in 1999.

Rugby World Cup The Rugby World Cup is a men's rugby union tournament contested every four years between the top international teams. The tournament is administered by World Rugby, the sport's international governing body. The winners are awarded the Webb ...

winner

Will Greenwood William John Heaton Greenwood, MBE (born 20 October 1972) is an English former rugby union player who played for Leicester Tigers and Harlequins and was a member of England's 2003 World Cup-winning team and the 1997 British & Irish Lions. H ...

is another who has benefited from the doctor's treatment after 8 months with a groin problem. Weeks later he was staking a claim to a recall to the England team. Even international sportsmen as far away as Australia have sought treatment from Müller-Wohlfahrt –

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...

ers

Ben Reid Ben Reid (born 29 April 1989) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for Collingwood in the Australian Football League (AFL). Personal life Reid grew up in Wangaratta Victoria, attending Galen Catholic College. He is the son o ...

Max Rooke Max Rooke (born Jarad Maxwell Rooke on 19 December 1981) is a former Australian rules footballer, who played for the Geelong Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). A utility player, tall and weighing , Rooke's versatility allo ...

and Mark Coughlan were treated for chronic soft tissue injuries. Likewise he has also treated professional cyclists including

Stephen Roche Stephen Roche (; born 28 November 1959) is an Irish former professional road racing cyclist. In a 13-year professional career, he peaked in 1987, becoming the second of only two cyclists to win the Triple Crown of victories in the Tour de Fr ...

. One of his more unusual treatments was when St Johnstone F.C. striker Peter MacDonald was prescribed goat's blood injections in a bid to cure a recurring hamstring problem. In 2010, he treated

Bono Paul David Hewson (born 10 May 1960), known by his stage name Bono (), is an Irish singer-songwriter, activist, and philanthropist. He is the lead vocalist and primary lyricist of the rock band U2. Born and raised in Dublin, he attended ...

(singer for U2) and

for severe back injury. In 2012, he was given the job of repairing the hamstring of

Dylan Grimes Dylan Grimes (born 16 July 1991) is an Australian rules footballer who plays for the Richmond Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). He is a three-time premiership player with the club, winning in 2017, 2019 and 2020. In 2019 he ...

of the

AFL AFL may refer to: Sports * American Football League (AFL), a name shared by several separate and unrelated professional American football leagues: ** American Football League (1926) (a.k.a. "AFL I"), first rival of the National Football Leagu ...

club the

Richmond Tigers The Richmond Football Club, nicknamed the Tigers, is an Australian rules football team playing in the Australian Football League (AFL). Between its inception in the Melbourne suburb of Richmond in 1885 and 1907, the club competed in the Vi ...

. In 2016

devoted his 100 m sprint gold medal at the 2016 Olympics in Rio to Müller-Wohlfahrt, who was at the stadium, after having received treatments from him for a previous

calf Calf most often refers to: * Calf (animal), the young of domestic cattle. * Calf (leg), in humans (and other primates), the back portion of the lower leg Calf or calves may also refer to: Biology and animal byproducts *Veal, meat from calves *C ...

injury. In 2019, he worked on Collingwood Magpie AFL

Jordan De Goey Jordan De Goey (born 15 March 1996) is a professional Australian rules footballer playing for the Collingwood Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). State football De Goey played his junior football with the Ashburton United ...

in a bid to get his injured hamstring resolved in time to play in the AFL Grand Final if the team get through their penultimate match against the GWS Giants.

Works

*''Mensch, beweg dich!'', Zabert Sandmann, *''So schützen Sie Ihre Gesundheit'', Zabert Sandmann, *''So gewinnen Sie mehr Lebenskraft'', Zabert Sandmann, *''Verletzt, was tun?'', with Hans-Jürgen Montag, *''Besser trainieren!'', Zabert Sandmann,

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Muller-Wohlfahrt, Hans-Wilhelm 1942 births Living people People from Wittmund FC Bayern Munich non-playing staff German sports physicians