From Bedok to Brighton: How a S’porean became first-team doctor at an elite English football club

Nearly 44,000 people were in the stands at England’s storied Wembley Stadium to see the Women’s FA Cup final between Manchester City and Brighton on May 31.

One Singaporean was closer than most to the action - Brighton’s first-team doctor Bethany Koh.

Alas, she did not have the best view of the game from their bench, since she was more focused on her players’ wellbeing than the goal-mouth action.

“Being on the bench sounds great, but the view is terrible,” she said. “There are goals we’ve missed because we’re looking at the player on the floor.

“But that is the job.”

While the Seagulls were routed 4-0 by league champions City, she still counts being part of Brighton’s match-day contingent in England’s premier Cup competition as a career highlight.

“I remember going to Wembley and watching games from the stands,” she said. “But to be on that bench at Wembley and then you walk out onto the pitch, seeing the whole stadium… to be a part of that match day behind the scenes was such an experience.”

Being part of a final featuring two teams from the top tier of women’s football in England was also a measure of how far Koh, 35, had come, after previous stints with the London City and Chelsea women’s teams.

But it was not a straightforward path, and ending up among the inner spheres of British elite sport was not always in her plans.

“Going into med school, I didn’t really think I could ever combine these interests, medicine and football,” she told The Straits Times over a call from her apartment in south-east London.

“But I was in the best country for football. I realised that there was such a thing as working in sport and working in football as a doctor.”

Koh moved to England in 2015 to get a degree in medicine at King’s College London, having already graduated with her first degree in kinesiology from Toronto, Canada.

Then, living in football-obsessed London as a skint post-graduate student, she signed up for as many free talks featuring doctors working in sport as she could. If there was a conference registration fee, she would volunteer to get waivers, and attend to rub shoulders with those in the sports medicine industry.

Big break at Brighton

Koh got her break when she was called to cover a Brighton women’s FA Cup match as a locum in February 2023. The invitation came from a doctor she knew from a university attachment, an experience which led to her shadowing him, “to see his day to day, going in and out of the club”, and whetting her appetite to become a sports physician.

Since that first match, she has been a team doctor at more than 50 matches for three clubs - London City, Chelsea and Brighton, all while completing a Masters in sports science from University College London and qualifying as a full-fledged general practitioner with Britain’s National Health Service.

Such is the volatility of the elite game that just weeks after the FA Cup final in May, Koh left Brighton to rejoin Chelsea in London, saving her a regular 2-½ hour drive to England’s South Coast.

Having previously split her week between GP shifts at a London clinic and duties as a football doctor, she is more focused on sport at the moment. Her research has also seen her get involved in a UEFA project to look into anterior cruciate ligament injuries.

Football as an ice breaker

Koh’s football interests have been helpful in her work as a GP too.

“Once you talk or ask about football (with patients), if they reciprocate, it’s like there’s a barrier broken,” she said. “Football just connects people in England.”

As a first-team doctor, Koh is tasked with match-day duties and clinic days, when she would treat players’ medical issues and also offer updates on their match fitness, information that could have an influence on the coach’s team selection.

Her input is not always popular.

“Players always want to play. They’ll be sniffling when talking to you, downplaying (ailments), but they always think they’re fine,” she said. “As long as the manager’s on board and has your back, they won’t be picked and they’re forced to rest.”

On match days, Koh, a Liverpool fan, has relished being part of the backroom staff, a fly on the wall in a match-day dressing room where emotions can run high.

The need to stay professional is paramount, she said.

“You’re there in the dressing room if they need you. There’s a mental space the players are in and then I think, ‘How can I support them?’” she said.

While she is not required to take any fitness tests, Koh is meticulous in sorting out her pre-match preparations, having chats with the opposing team’s doctor, match officials and planning for any scenarios that may arise.

Energy gels, strapping and even spare hair-ties fill her run-on bag, which she carries when sprinting onto the pitch to fulfil her duty of care.

Flying Singapore’s flag

For Koh, it is hard to believe how a girl who used to roam playgrounds in Bedok and football fields in the East Coast is now travelling around England with Chelsea’s women, one of the country’s biggest women’s football clubs and winners of a record eight Women’s Super League titles.

The opportunities are testament to her desire and love for the game, according to one of her former schoolmates.

Singapore national men’s football coach Gavin Lee was a year ahead of Koh at Victoria Junior College, a period when she was part of its Schools National A Division girls’ title-winning team in 2008 and 2009.

“Bethany was always deeply passionate about football,” Lee told ST. “Individuals like her who have gone on to fly the (Singapore) flag high are inspirations and hopefully they will bring back the knowledge gained to continue with the growth of the game here.”