Mr Van Niekerk graduated from Pretoria University in 1987. After working in England in A&E and orthopaedic surgery his further postgraduate education all took place in Scotland. In 1991 he was invited to become a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh after completing a range of surgical examinations over a period of three years.

In 1997, after completing four years of specialist orthopaedic training, it took the intercollegiate examination in orthopaedic surgery in Glasgow. He was subsequently awarded the Fellowship of the Intercollegiate Royal College of Surgeons in orthopaedic surgery. He joined the UK Specialist Register in trauma and orthopaedic surgery in 2000 after completing a two-year fellowship in the management of lower limb injuries in sports and general trauma. During this fellowship he developed his knowledge and skills in cartilage transplantation, arthroscopic surgery, ligament reconstruction of the knee, ankle and the rehabilitation of injuries. He was involved with some of the pioneering work in converting stem cells into cartilage cells for re-implantation and frequently lectured throughout Europe and the Scandinavian countries on the subject.

In 2002 he moved to what was then the Northallerton NHS trust. This trust had the responsibility for providing secondary care services to all the regiments based at Catterick Garrison (the largest infantry garrison in Europe). Effectively this meant providing a consultant grade service to manage knee and ankle injuries for MOD service personnel from Edinburgh down to Portsmouth. During this time he also provided consultancy to all the major league football clubs in the area including Middlesbrough FC, Sunderland FC, Hartlepool FC, Darlington FC and Carlisle FC.

Latterly Mr Van Niekerk has focused on the management of very complex instabilities around the knee and ankle as well as the management of cartilage loss and the development of arthritis in patients who are either too young or active to be considered for joint replacement surgery.

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