Khaled had lived with worsening right-knee pain for three years, managing it with cortisone injections and physiotherapy before his orthopaedic surgeon recommended a total knee replacement. He was 54 and still coaching his local football club on weekends, so preserving function and return-to-activity were as important to him as pain relief. After a pre-operative assessment by our joint-replacement nurse specialist, he was listed for robotic-assisted TKR — a technique that allows sub-millimetre implant alignment checked against his pre-operative CT plan.

The procedure took 78 minutes under spinal anaesthesia. Khaled was walking with a frame four hours post-op and discharged the following day with a structured home-exercise programme. He attended twice-weekly physiotherapy sessions for eight weeks, progressing from straight-leg raises to functional squats, before transitioning to an independent gym-based programme supervised remotely by his physio.

At his 12-week review, Khaled had regained 130° of flexion and was back on the touchline coaching. He returned to light refereeing at 16 weeks. At 12 months his Oxford Knee Score was 42/48. He still wears a custom unloader brace for matches — his choice, not a clinical requirement.

“Twelve weeks from robotic surgery to the football pitch.”

This story is published with the patient's full consent and has been reviewed by the treating clinical team.