Andy Williams, MB BS FRCS (Orth) FFSEM (UK)

Consultant Knee Surgeon, Fortius clinic,
Reader at Imperial College London;
Honorary Senior Research Fellow, Nuffield Department of Orthopaedics, Rheumatology, and Musculoskeletal Sciences, University of Oxford. 

Andy Williams qualified from King’s College Hospital, London in 1987. Orthopaedic training at The Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital, Stanmore, and a year’s Fellowship in Brisbane, Australia with Peters Myers and McMeniman. This is where his experience with sports-related surgery began. On return to the UK in 1997 he became Senior Lecturer / Honorary Consultant at The Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital, Stanmore. 

Elective practice is exclusively knee surgery. Approximately 90% is soft tissue knee surgery, and he undertakes around 100 ACL reconstructions per year, of which half are on professional athletes, and a multi-ligament reconstruction every 2 weeks. This latter work represents one of the World’s largest experiences. He has been the primary knee surgeon for many of the UK’s professional sports teams, including 75% English Premier League Football teams, and 80% English Premiership rugby for many years. 50% of his patients are professional sportsmen and women, and 50% of all his operative cases are on professional athletes. He is a founder and board member of Fortius Clinic in central London.

He has published over 110 peer-reviewed articles. His study of knee motion employing weight-bearing, ‘dynamic’ MRI has fundamentally changed thinking in the field.  For this he was awarded The Hunterian Professorship by The Royal College of Surgeons of England for 2005-2006. Current research interests are in the fields of inflammatory response to knee injury, and biomechanics at Imperial College, London, where an anatomical study of the lateral soft tissue restraints aiding the ACL was awarded the Trillat Prize at ISAKOS 2015. Current work there focuses on the medial ligament complex. He was a lead editor of the 39th Edition of Gray’s Anatomy published in December 2004. He was on the executive of The British Association for Surgery of The Knee. He sat on the Editorial Board of the Bone and Joint Journal and the ESSKA Sports Committee.  In 2002 he was awarded the ABC Travelling Fellowship. He was named in the UK’s Top 100 Doctors by the Times newspaper in 2011. He is the first UK member of The Herodicus Society.


Recent and current appointments

  • Fortius Clinic
  • Honorary Reader, Imperial College, London
  • Honorary Senior Research Fellow, Nuffield Department of Orthopaedics, Rheumatology and Musculoskeletal Services, University of Oxford


Publications, lectures and teaching

  • Lead editor of the 39th edition of Gray’s Anatomy
  • Written over 100 scientific articles
  • Published numerous award-winning studies on knee motion and ligament / meniscal anatomy and surgery
  • Lectures nationally and internationally on knee surgery


Society memberships

  • ACL Study Group (Member of Scientific Committee)
  • Australian Knee Society
  • British Orthopaedic Association
  • British Association for Surgery of the Knee (Executive Committee Member 2004-07)
  • British Patellofemoral Society (Founding Member)
  • British Orthopaedic Sports Trauma Association (Founding Member)
  • European Society of Sports Traumatology, Knee Surgery and Arthroscopy (ESSKA) (Member of Sports Committee)
  • Faculty of Sports and Exercise Medicine (Founding Fellow)
  • Herodicus Society (First British Member)
  • International Society Arthroscopy, Knee Surgery, And Orthopaedic Sports Medicine (ISAKOS) (Member of Knee Sports and Preservation Committee)
  • Fellow of Royal College of Surgeons of England

orthohub content:

Knee injuries: lessons learnt from elite sports