Athletes who have undergone recovery from spinal injuries will play against a team of doctors from the Spinal Neurosurgery Centre, headed by Dmitry Dzukaev, as part of a grant programme from the Moscow Mayor with the support of the Moscow Centre for Innovative Technologies in Healthcare.
The VTB United League SuperCup will start with one of the most unique events showcasing the outstanding achievements of Moscow Healthcare in the field of spinal cord injury recovery.
On 21 September at 14:00, the VTB Arena will host a friendly game between doctors from the Moscow City Health Department and Russian professional players representing the VTB United League, Men’s Super League and Women’s Premier League.
The teams will be led onto the floor by 1988 Olympic Champion Sergey Tarakanov and USSR Honoured Coach Evgeny Gomelsky.
The professional team will feature athletes who have undergone surgery at the Moscow City Spinal Neurosurgery Centre of the 67th Hospital and have successfully recovered due to a new spinal stabilisation technique developed by a team of Moscow doctors led by Dmitry Dzukaev. Among them were Evgenii Baburin (Pari Nizhny Novgorod), Ivan Strebkov (Pari Nizhny Novgorod), Aleksandr Gankevich (Pari Nizhny Novgorod), Aleksandr Maltsev (Khimki), Valeriy Likhodei (Astana), Veronika Pavlyuchenko (Nika), Artem Zabelin (ex-UNICS).
Match TV commentators Georgy Cherdantsev, Pavel Zanozin and Aleksandr Aksenov will be special guests and presenters.
Sergey Kushchenko, VTB United League President :
– The upcoming game is truly unique. Famous basketball players and champions will play at the VTB Arena to show how important the recovery process from complex spinal injuries is in professional sports and specifically in basketball. I can say that I experienced it first-hand and was amazed by the famous fast-track of Doctor Dzukaev and his entire team. Thanks to the world-class work of the medical staff of the Spinal Centre, the current athletes were rehabilitated in the shortest possible time and were able to continue their professional careers.
Dmitry Dzukaev, Head of the Spinal Centre, neurosurgeon :
– The new technique has been worked out on the basis of the interdisciplinary training centre of innovative surgical technologies in conditions as close to real life as possible. The development and implementation of this original technology for the treatment of degenerative diseases of the spine became possible due to the grant programme of Moscow city Mayor Sergey Sobyanin and cooperation with the Moscow Centre for Innovative Technologies in Healthcare. The technique has proven its effectiveness and is now successfully applied in practice at the Moscow Spinal Centre. Sports fans have probably already seen our technology in action, but did not know about it. Therefore, the upcoming basketball game with VTB United League professional players will pleasantly surprise many.
