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Pakistan’s athletes suffer from lack of sports medicine | The Express Tribune

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Pakistan’s athletes suffer from lack of sports medicine | The Express Tribune


He believes better nutrition and medical care can prevent athlete burnout and produce champions built to last

Rizwan Ahmed Aftab (left), CEO of Activit and Director at National Hospital DHA Lahore, with Olympic gold medalist Arshad Nadeem. Photo: ACTIVIT


KARACHI/LAHORE:

Pakistan’s renowned dietician, RD Rizwan Ahmed Aftab, Director at National Hospital DHA, Lahore, and Founder/CEO of Activit, emphasized that Pakistan is lagging far behind in the areas of nutrition and sports medicine.

The country has seen world-class athletes go to waste due to a lack of proper medical care for their injuries, while there is a history of athletes in football and bodybuilding, where poor care led to their deaths.

While there is a batch of athletes that are capable of winning medals at the international events, and even the Olympics, like Arshad Nadeem, and Commonwealth Games Champion Nooh Dastgir Butt, among others, there is a dearth of expertise in sports medicine that can ensure longevity to the top crop’s career, improved performances, and timely treatment.

RD Rizwan has been closely involved with the country’s top athletes as a sponsor. He took the athletes in the program, where they serve as ambassadors for the supplement brand he developed, Activit.

The athletes also get lifetime free treatment in the National Hospital DHA, Lahore, which was founded by his father and renowned orthopedic surgeon Dr Aftab Ahmed.

On the sidelines of an MMA event earlier this year, RD Rizwan spoke exclusively to The Express Tribune on the subject of sports medicine.

“There is a medicine zero sports medicine element in Pakistan,” Rizwan told The Express Tribune. “When we speak about sports medicine, the latter word is medicine. Now you define this as two parts.

The pharmaceutical side of it and the nutraceutical part of it.

“So, in the nutraceutical side of sports medicine, the most studied nutrient is creatine monohydrate, which athletes can use. It is not an anabolic, androgenic steroid that enhances their muscles or red blood cells to give them enhanced performance…but the majority of the athletes in the world use some sort of chemical enhancement, if they get caught, they get caught, if they don’t get caught, they don’t get caught.”

He gave an insight into disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong, who took the banned EPO medicine, a pharmaceutical drug, which is known for blood doping, and it is widely abused to enhance endurance.

There are drugs, like EPO that Lance Armstrong used, that increase red blood cells, and the more red blood cells you have, the more oxygen carrying capacity you have that gives you more stamina,” he explained.

But there are more developments in sports medicine that can help athletes, such as collagen peptides, which are not banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency.

He explained that there are better ways to treat athletic injuries now, but some of the most advanced treatments, like stem cells for sports injuries, are still too expensive and not available in Pakistan.

“There are new ways to treat athletes when they get injured. Like peptides, which are a chain of amino acids. So they can be useful.”

But at the end of the day, Rizwan said that it’s the organic food that should be available to athletes to build their bodies that can compete in the international events, with top talent.

“The primary thing is organic, good quality food and not supplements,” he said.

“If you are not having your food checked, the proper amount of calories that you need, calories you are burning, the dehydration process, you are sweating. How are you spending the magnesium, potassium, and sodium? The amount of protein you need to maintain or build your muscle.
All of this is a proper science. You calculate it per kg of your weight, how many carbohydrates you need, and which type of carbohydrates you are taking. Are you consuming good fats or not?

“Every athlete has a different way of consuming calories. It is a complete science. There is no such attention to these details in Pakistan.

“What we do have, maybe in the Pakistan Cricket Board, that athletes are told about it to eat this, and not that, this much body fat you must have, but as such, this is an area where we need a lot of work.”

He added that only micronutrient deficiency can be treated and covered through supplements.

Meanwhile, Rizwan has also been involved with Arshad Nadeem since 2023, when he was looking to get the javelin thrower as an Activit ambassador and sponsor him. Still, the athlete’s coach, Salman Butt, insisted that the support should come in the shape of medical facilities and treatment.

Arshad went on to win the Paris Olympics gold medal and broke the Games record as well.

But Rizwan had been instrumental in treating Arshad’s long-standing injuries before the Olympic glory.

Arshad’s primary surgeon, who treated his elbow and knees before the Olympics and to date, is Rizwan’s cousin. The two have formed a system where Arshad’s CT and MRIs can get done at the National Hospital DHA, which is a world-class facility and equipment, and they are sent abroad, to the United Kingdom, where Bajwa resides and practices medicine.

“When I thought of taking Arshad Nadeem as a sponsored athlete in 2023, his coach, Salman Butt, said that they needed treatment. When they go to the UK, they get things, but those same facilities are not available in Pakistan. He told me that I have such a big institute for treatment, and they needed an environment where MRI and CT scans can be done, and we can send them abroad.

“Arshad’s treatment could have happened in Pakistan as well, and the surgery too, but our surgeons said that it is better for the surgeon who is already treating Arshad to carry on treating him, as they can understand the patient better, and it would be better to have Arshad’s surgeries with his primary surgeon in the UK only.

Initially, Arshad’s surgery was treated by Dr Ali Raza Hashmi, who was the protege of my father, Dr Aftab Ahmed. He was the one who pinpointed the issue. “But Bajwa did a great job.

“Dr Ali Bajwa and I have decided that Arshad can get biological treatment for everything with us.”



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Grateful Ducks: Oregon’s Grateful Dead uniforms top best Week 9 threads in college football

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October 24, 2025

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Grateful Ducks: Oregon’s Grateful Dead uniforms top best Week 9 threads in college football


Oregon brings the heat with its uniforms every week, but few of its many combinations have a backstory like the threads it’ll be wearing in Week 9 against Wisconsin.

On Sunday, Oregon unveiled its “Grateful Ducks” uniforms, a tribute to the famed band the Grateful Dead.

The Grateful Dead have a deep connection to the Ducks’ home city of Eugene — the band played at Autzen Stadium 10 times between 1974 and 1994. Over the summer, Oregon announced that the stadium theme — a “tie-dye out” — for the school’s Week 9 game against the Badgers would honor the band.

Fittingly, the Ducks’ uniforms this week will draw upon similar themes. At first glance, the Grateful Ducks threads look like a simple enough black-and-green Oregon combination. But the details are both plentiful and aesthetically excellent.

Most notably, the green numbers and the trademark “O” logos on the helmet contain tie-dye patterns. The jersey shoulders contain distinct patches that mix the school’s colors with the band’s “Steal Your Face” motif. Inside the collar and on the back of the helmet is a line of the Grateful Dead’s “dancing bears” — swapping in ducks for the bears.

Oregon isn’t the only school bringing out memorable threads this week, though. Here are the top uniforms from around the college football world in Week 9:

A great uniform can be elevated to another level with a memorable reveal, with New Mexico achieving such a feat this week.

The Lobos’ Week 9 throwback uniforms are aesthetically incredible — turquoise jerseys coupled with gray helmets featuring a simple red Zia emblem, which is found on the state flag of New Mexico.

But New Mexico’s reveal video was every bit as good as the uniforms themselves. Lobos coach Jason Eck and several players drove around Albuquerque in their riff of the movie “Gone in 60 seconds.”

Miami will ditch its usual color scheme of orange, green and white against Stanford for a new look: camouflage.

The Hurricanes’ “Honor and Support” threads mark a tribute to those who have served in the military. Details include a camouflage pattern on the jersey and an American flag patch on the sleeves, with pale green pants. A black helmet also features the school’s classic “U” logo in camouflage coloring.

It’s homecoming weekend for Mississippi State, and it is pulling out a slick uniform combination for the occasion.

The highlight comes on the helmets, which feature the school’s interlocking “MSU” motif on a maroon background for the first time this season. The lids will be paired with a traditional combination of jersey and pants — a maroon jersey and gray pants, with white accenting throughout.

They didn’t bring Florida International any good luck in a 45-26 loss to the Kennesaw State on Tuesday, but the Panthers’ Week 9 threads were still extremely slick.

FIU pulled out its Vice uniforms for the matchup with the Owls, a look that adds a number of bold neon highlights to a black base. The uniform’s helmets include neon pink face masks, a neon blue and pink panther logo on the helmet and a 305 area code on the front of the helmet, with the “0” represented by a panther.





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Alleged mob ties in NBA scandal recall La Cosa Nostra’s long shadow over sports

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October 24, 2025

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Alleged mob ties in NBA scandal recall La Cosa Nostra’s long shadow over sports


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The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) announced the arrest of 34 individuals, including Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups, Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier and former NBA guard and coach Damon Jones, as part of a widespread investigation into an illegal gambling scheme.

FBI Director Kash Patel confirmed at a news conference in New York on Thursday that the investigation was tied to a probe involving members of the La Cosa Nostra crime families focused on an illegal gambling operation and sports-rigging operations that “spanned the course of years.”

“Not only did we crack into the fraud that these perpetrators committed on the grand stage of the NBA, but we also entered and executed a system of justice against La Cosa Nostra to include the Bonanno, Gambino, Genovese, and Lucchese crime families.”

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“It takes courageous prosecutors to stand before you and say, we will not allow this kind of illicit activity to happen, not only at the national sporting level, but also where it hides in La Cosa Nostra,” Patel added. “And when these two collided together, they perpetrated a fraud that is historic in terms of not just money, but the scheme and the deceit that they utilize to steal and swindle people from money to include crypto fraud.”

NBA coach Chauncey Billups of the Portland Trail Blazers and Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier were arrested on Thursday for alleged involvement in illegal gambling. Billups, a former Detroit Pistons star and member of the NBA Hall of Fame, was arrested in connection with rigged illegal poker games tied to the Mafia, FBI Director Kash Patel said. Rozier and a former NBA player, Damon Jones, were arrested in a sports betting case, Patel said at a press conference in New York.  (ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images)

U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Joseph Nocella clarified that two indictments were announced Thursday, both involving fraud. The first focused on sports betting, and the second involved illegal gambling connected to “rigged poker games.”

“These defendants, which include former professional athletes, used high-tech cheating technology to steal millions of dollars from victims in underground poker games that were secretly fixed,” Nocella said. “The games in the New York area were backed by the Bonanno, Gambino, and Genovese crime families of La Cosa Nostra.”

The games were alleged to have taken place in the Hamptons, Las Vegas, Miami, and Manhattan. Nocella alleged that Billups and Jones were used as “face cards” to draw in targeted victims, known as “fish,” looking to play alongside former professional athletes.

NBA PLAYER TERRY ROZIER’S LAWYER SLAMS FBI AFTER ARREST

“What the victims, the fish, didn’t know is that everybody else at the poker game, from the dealer to the players, including the face cards, were in on the scam.”

Nocella said the crime families became involved as a result of having “preexisting control over non-rigged illegal poker games” in New York. Of the 34 defendants, 13 are alleged members and associates of the Bonanno, Gambino and Genovese crime families, including high-ranking “capos and soldiers from these families.”

La Cosa Nostra

According to the FBI, the La Cosa Nostra (LCN) crime families evolved from the Sicilian Mafia and are a New York-based network consisting of five “families”: Bonanno, Colombo, Gambino, Genovese and Lucchese. Its prevalence in the United States dates back to the 1920s.

Other cities with active LCN ties include Philadelphia, Detroit, and Chicago, and the New England area.

Among the alleged crimes these organizations are said to be involved in, several notable cases have involved major sports scandals. In the United States, there is a long history of sports betting and match-fixing crimes that have been tied to organized crime, both directly and indirectly. 

Boxing 1950s-1960s

Boxing manager Frank Carbo

American gangster and boxing manager Frank Carbo leaving the Beach Street police station in New York after receiving a 10-point indictment over irregularities in his professional boxing affairs on Aug. 7, 1959.    (Neal Boenzi/New York Times Co./Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Frank “Frankie” Carbo, a known Lucchese soldier, and his longtime partner Frank “Blinky” Palermo were convicted in 1961 of extortion and conspiracy after using threats and intimidation to control world welterweight champion Don Jordan. The case exposed the mob’s control over the sport at the time, highlighted by Carbo and Palermo’s influence over fighters and promotions. The convictions were later upheld, and the case exposed deep corruption that, decades later, helped spur reform movements culminating in the Professional Boxing Safety Act of 1996 and the Muhammad Ali Boxing Reform Act of 2000.

HEAT’S TERRY ROZIER ARRESTED AS PART OF FBI SPORTS BETTING PROBE

1951 college basketball point-shaving scandal

Al Roth and Ed Warner walked by detectives

Two city college basketball stars, Al Roth (foreground) and Ed Warner (with hat) are escorted by detectives into the Elizabeth Street Station House for booking on charges of bribery. Police said that the two Beaver stars, along with teammate Ed Roman and three other men, had confessed their parts in a new basketball fix scandal, involving the “throwing” of several city games this season.  (Bettmann Archive/Getty Images)

The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office in New York uncovered a widespread point-shaving scheme involving players from several major programs, including City College of New York (CCNY) and Long Island University (LIU), who accepted bribes connected to organized crime gambling syndicates in New York. The investigation resulted in more than 30 indictments and led to prison time for key figures and lifetime bans from the NBA for players involved. No specific crime family was ever formally charged in the case, but one of the main fixers, Salvatore T. Sollazzo, was reported to have known ties to New York’s underworld gambling network.

Boston College men’s basketball point-shaving scandal

Rick Kuhn Boston College

Rick Kuhn (#35) during Boston College men’s basketball’s 1978-1979 season.  (Joe Dennehy/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)

One of the clearest examples of La Cosa Nostra’s reach in sports was the 1978-79 scandal involving Boston College and two associates of the Lucchese crime family. The two associates, Henry Hill and James “Jimmy the Gent” Burke, paid players thousands of dollars to manipulate game scores for betting profits during that season with the help of Pittsburgh bookmaker Paul Mazzei. The FBI’s investigation and federal prosecution led to multiple convictions, including Boston College player Rick Kuhn, who was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Burke was sentenced to 12 years, but Hill avoided direct prosecution for the scandal in exchange for his cooperation with authorities.

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Several other illegal sports betting and gambling operations linked to crime families in New York have been prosecuted over the years. This year, five members and associates of the Lucchese crime family pleaded guilty to running an illegal online betting operation that collected an estimated $1 million annually over several years of operation. In 2024, 17 individuals tied to the Gambino family were indicted for a sports gambling operation that handled over $22 million in illegal bets, the Office of the New York State Attorney General announced at the time.

Follow Fox News Digital’s sports coverage on X, and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter.





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Struggling Panathinaikos hire Rafa Benítez

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October 24, 2025

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Struggling Panathinaikos hire Rafa Benítez


Oct 24, 2025, 06:53 AM ET

Former Liverpool manager Rafa Benítez has been hired to coach Panathinaikos on a deal that Greek media reported to be the country’s highest-ever salary for a coach.

The struggling Athens club, who enter the weekend in seventh place in the 14-team Greek Super League, announced on Friday that the well-traveled Spaniard signed a contract that reportedly extends to 2027.

Local media reported the deal is worth close to €4 million ($4.6m) per season and includes an option to extend for an additional season.

The 65-year-old Benítez, who has also coached Real Madrid, Inter Milan and Newcastle United, was fired by Celta Vigo in March 2024 after his team had won just five league games.

Benítez had been fired by Premier League club Everton after 200 days in early 2022 after failing to overcome his successful association with arch-rival Liverpool.

Under Benítez, Liverpool famously won the Champions League title in 2005 in the “Miracle of Istanbul,” reached the 2007 final, and won the FA Cup in 2006.

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Benítez was Chelsea‘s interim manager when the London club won the Europa League title in 2013. He led Napoli to victory in the Italian Cup in 2014.

Real Madrid fired Benítez in January 2016 after seven months on the job.

Panathinaikos had fired Rui Vitoria last month. Christos Kontis was serving as interim coach. The team lost 3-1 at Feyenoord on Thursday in the Europa League.

Benítez’s first game in charge will be on Sunday when Panathinaikos host last-place Asteras Tripolis.



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