Suzanne Duker Sports Physiotherapist
I’m a sports physiotherapist with a keen interest in injury prevention and active recovery.
I have worked with international sports teams both in the UK and in New Zealand as well as with numerous individual elite athletes.
I have always had a passion and strong interest in sport and excelled in Judoka from an early age going on to represent New Zealand for a number of years. I was the New Zealand champion in my early teens and placed third in the Oceania Championships. I experienced my first sports related injury at 12 years old and as a consequence had to have surgery on my knee to repair it.
This experience sparked my interest in physiotherapy and I knew that whichever occupation I chose it would involve sport.
The key to coming back from any injury is that the more you can do for yourself the quicker your injury will heal!
I firstly trained as a sports/personal trainer but diversified and completed a sports science qualification instead. However I still retained a really strong interest in working with injured athletes. Due to this I decided to pursue further education and consider a career in sports physiotherapy. I was already working in the sports industry so had made some great contacts and I took on the role of strength and conditioning coach for athletes including a member of the New Zealand Black Caps cricket team. I assisted the Palmerston North Jets national basketball league team and also worked with the Manawatu Rugby Union assisting the U20 Rep squad.
After this I decided to experience some travel and moved to Scotland where I was able to complete a two year Masters Degree in Physiotherapy at Glasgow Caledonian University whilst working with the Glasgow Warriors rugby team. I was focused on working on preventive programmes including some specific work around groin injury. Additionally I was also able to work with the Scottish Women’s football teams, both the U17 and U19 teams, this provided the opportunity to travel Europe with these teams which was an awesome experience.
My next move was to a role with the Lisburn Army Base, Belfast, Northern Ireland working as the Sports Physiotherapist.
Upon returning home to New Zealand in 2008, I secured a role in a Palmerston North physiotherapy clinic alongside securing a role working with the International Rugby Academy in New Zealand (IRANZ).
I then moved to the Linton Army Camp where I was able to utilise my expertise from my previous army based role. During this time I also became a mum to two beautiful boys and I continued some part time work with IRANZ and through this connection also started to work at the Wellington Sevens from 2009, which I am still actively involved with.
Whilst working part time I decided to take the opportunity to set up my own practice and created what has become today an extremely successful and thriving Physiotherapy practice.
I continued my work with the Sevens teams and through this I started to work with youth Rugby, to help the Hurricanes Schools Representative development camp as their Physio. Around this time I also added a beautiful girl to my family.
In a relatively short period of time I have gained a mountain of experience across a number of sports disciplines with people from all levels. I specialise in both preventative physiotherapy as well as recovery. I not only work with injury and dysfunction but also assist my clients to develop good life long habits to reduce the chances of injury reoccurring.
I am an extremely experienced physiotherapist with the added the expertise of being a trained sports trainer having worked with elite athletes and sports teams for the past fifteen years.