Medic-to-the-stars Andrew Willett doesn’t always look like the typical businessman on his travels – he often pitches up at airport check-in with a surfboard under his arms.

“I miss the open spaces and the ocean,” says the 37-year-old Australian. “If I get a chance to combine my passion of surfing with a business trip, then I’ll do that. Of course, Australia is great for surfing, but there are areas of South Africa and the south of France which are also very good.”

Willett is the founder and chief executive officer of Pure Sports Medicine, a leading performance and sports injury clinic in the UK. A former international rugby player who represented Australia at Sevens, he stumbled across the idea over five years ago, while studying an MBA at Oxford University.

Willett is, by his own admission, injury prone and when he discovered the standard of sports medicine, physiotherapy and rehabilitation in the UK was poor compared with the southern Hemisphere, he decided to launch his own company.

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His clients include the England cricket team, Fulham Football Club and The Spice Girls. He employs 50 staff, makes undisclosed profits and frequently travels around the world to conduct research for his business.

Do you travel with the sports stars?

They usually come into our Kensington clinic when they need treatment or consultations. We recently treated a very famous Indian cricketer and for about a month afterwards we had to field non-stop calls from Indian journalists wanting to know when he was going to be fit to play again. They are so fanatical about their sport in that part of the world.

What were the Spice Girls like?

A couple of them needed to come to the clinic. Singers and dancers are very much like athletes, because they need to go out there and perform and they also get injuries. Dance can lead to high trauma on some parts of the body. I can’t say much because of client confidentiality, but I can assure you that all the girls were lovely to work with.

How do you travel to Europe?

Generally, I try to fly with British Airways, because I like their service. It wouldn’t bother me to go on a no-frills airline, but BA goes from Heathrow, which is very convenient for me.

Rugby players are big lads, so do you fly business class?

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