Sports Medicine for the Lehigh Valley
Sports medicine is central to the practice of Dr. Michael Hendel, MD, PhD. He currently serves as team physician for the Reading Royals (ECHL professional hockey), the Lehigh Valley IronPigs (Triple-A baseball), and Liberty & Freedom High School football, and as tournament physician for the PIAA State Wrestling Tournament. Before returning to Pennsylvania, he served as assistant team physician for the NFL New York Giants.
That team physician experience shapes how he treats every patient — recreational athletes, high school and college athletes, runners, and youth players alike: accurate diagnosis, evidence-based return-to-play decisions, and treatment matched to your goals.
What Dr. Hendel Treats
- Shoulder — dislocations and instability in athletes, labral tears, rotator cuff injuries, AC joint separations
- Knee — ACL and ligament tears, meniscus injuries, patellar instability, cartilage damage
- Elbow — tennis and golfer's elbow, throwing-arm care for baseball players
- Fractures — ankle, clavicle, and sports-related fractures, with surgical fixation when needed
- Overuse injuries, stress injuries, and growth-plate-aware care for young athletes (ages 8-18)
Non-operative care leads whenever appropriate: structured rehabilitation, injections including PRP, bracing, and activity modification. When surgery is the right call, Dr. Hendel performs modern arthroscopic and reconstructive techniques with a written recovery protocol for every procedure.
Parents of young athletes can start with the youth sports injury guide for parents, patients planning surgery can review the ACL recovery timeline and the shoulder surgery recovery guide, and every patient can explore the practice’s injury & recovery guides for plain-language answers before an appointment.