One of South Africa’s premier sports doctors
NOT only does Dr Lervasen Pillay serve as an honorary lecturer at the University of Witwatersrand (Wits) but he is also the chief medical officer of the Premier Soccer League (PSL), the body responsible for running professional soccer in the country.
Pillay is in the Wits Institute of Sports Health (WiSH), where he is the chairperson of the Cricket Interest Group. He also has a post graduate certification from UCT as an Occupational Health and Safety Practitioner as well as a certificate from the American Medical Association for Permanent Medical Impairment Evaluation.
Growing up in Lenasia, Johannesburg, Pillay hailed from a sporting family and it was natural that he gravitated towards sport.
“I was involved in sport from a young age. Initially it started with soccer with Bluebells United from under-8 and then I got involved in cricket, athletics and gymnastics. I participated in competitive soccer, cricket and athletics in the early ’90s.
“However, we played basketball, tennis and BMX riding socially,” he said.
As a sportsman some of Pillay’s greatest achievements were winning provincial colours for triple and long jump in 1991, winning the most improved all-rounder cricket award in the late 1980s and playing provincial soccer and cricket in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
As an academic, he has published several papers in international journals, the most recent relating to Covid-19 in 2020. He is also involved in academic activities online.
Whilst a medical student at the University of Pretoria, Pillay played for the university volleyball and soccer teams and that’s when his love for sports medicine blossomed.
“Sports medicine was not a wide field then and I gravitated towards trauma and orthopedics. Once I started working and seeing the management from a sports physician perspective, I decided to pursue this path,” he said.
Pillay has had an interesting career in sports medicine. He served as the doping control officer at the Loftus Versfeld Stadium during the 2009 Fifa Confederations Cup and was the head of medical for the now defunct Bidvest Wits football club from 2007-2017.
As an academic, Pillay has served as an Extra Ordinary Lecturer for the Section Sports Medicine at the University of Pretoria.
He has done work for the Soweto Marathon and City to City Marathon, and was one of the Orlando Pirates team doctors. Currently he’s the chief medical officer for the Central Gauteng Lions and Imperial Lions cricket outfits.
The international sports scene has faced many challenges as a result of the pandemic and Pillay has been at the epicentre of the generation of management strategies in South African sport.
“Similar to what we see on a daily basis, trying to get people to comply to regulations has been challenging, in the team setting and when they are in their private setting.
The added layer is always the potential/positive Covid-19 athlete or staff member, as their close proximity always requires due diligence in monitoring and contact tracing,” said Pillay.
“Sometimes if someone is positive, there’s disappointment from their side that they cannot compete and also pressure from coaching staff as it may be a vital player. Slowly, the coaching and management have realised the importance of proper management of positive cases,” he said.
Pillay is an ardent golfer and says that over the past two years he has played the most rounds than in his whole life. In his younger days, he was an enthusiastic DJ and still mixes music when he can.
Pillay is married to Sudeshni and resides in Bassonia, south of Johannesburg, with his mother Gina and nephew Shailin.