Doc's heart on the sports field throughout career

Dr John Mayhew. Photo / Getty Images.

Dr John Mayhew
Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to sports medicine.

An idea he might specialise in cardiology changed for John "Doc" Mayhew when his passion for rugby led him into sports medicine jobs with the All Blacks, the Warriors and medical insurance alongside his work as a general practitioner.

After another academic stint in London, Mayhew was playing club rugby for Northcote when he began helping North Harbour.

"Then in 1988 I got asked to help out with the All Blacks because I was one of the few people who had formal sports medicine training," he said.

"It didn't mean I was better than anyone or something I envisaged but it just rolled from there. I thought it would be a temporary phase of my life and then I'd go on to be a proper doctor."

He was thinking of a change when John Hart persuaded him to stay on when rugby went professional in 1996 before Mayhew became fulltime medical director for New Zealand Rugby.

Hart came calling again in 2005 with a post at the Warriors as Mayhew's portfolio widened to include work with Sovereign on insurance packages for sports people.

Those opportunities and the need to monitor the recovery of eldest son Richard, who broke his neck playing rugby, removed Mayhew from Clive Woodward's work offer at the Southampton football club.

Mayhew has watched his three sons play for Harbour.

Mayhew said the recent death of Jonah Lomu was the most difficult episode in his sports medicine career as the All Black was a good friend of his family.

"It is quite traumatic when you are signing a death certificate for someone you view as a friend. We had a 20-year plus association with the All Blacks and his medical condition and his death was by far the worst thing I have had to deal with."

He dealt with serious leg injuries to Michael Jones, Shaun Johnson, Ruben Kruger and even his younger brother David, on an adjoining rugby field, while an Australian surgeon had been the most concise in his verdict about Sean Fitzpatrick's wonky knee.

"As only concise Aussies can do, he put up the scan and turned to Sean and said: 'You're stuffed'."