Physiotherapist in Belfast
Belfast's specialist musculoskeletal and sports physiotherapy service — launching August 2026, led by Chartered Physiotherapist Rory McIntyre (MCSP, HCPC). Lower limb, upper limb, sports injury, post-surgical and rheumatology rehab, fully integrated with our existing MSK podiatry, diagnostic ultrasound and shockwave therapy. Two Belfast locations — Lisburn Road and Ormeau Road. No GP referral needed.
700+
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MCSP
Chartered
HCPC
Registered
MSc
Leeds-Trained
Belfast's Specialist Physiotherapy Service
From August 2026, Lower Limb Clinic adds a specialist physiotherapy service to our existing musculoskeletal pathway. This isn't a generalist add-on — it's a Chartered Physiotherapist with rare clinical depth, integrated into a clinic that already offers diagnostic ultrasound, shockwave therapy, ultrasound-guided injections, custom 3D-printed orthotics and VALD strength testing under one roof.
Our service is led by Rory McIntyre, a Donegal-born, Leeds-trained Chartered Physiotherapist (MCSP, HCPC) returning home after nearly a decade between Glasgow and Australia. In Glasgow, Rory worked as a Highly Specialist Physiotherapist in Rheumatology at NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde and as Lead Physiotherapist for the National Axial Spondyloarthritis Society — rare expertise in inflammatory joint conditions that will sit alongside our established MSK podiatry service.
Whether you're a runner managing a stubborn Achilles problem, recovering from shoulder surgery, navigating rheumatoid arthritis, or trying to get back to GAA after a hamstring injury, our physiotherapy service is built around precise diagnosis, hands-on treatment and progressive rehab that gets you to your actual goal — not just out of immediate pain.
Launching August 2026 — join the waitlist
Our physiotherapy service opens for bookings in August 2026. Waitlist members will be offered the first available appointments before public booking opens, and will be the first to receive confirmed BUPA/WPA provider numbers.
Join the WaitlistWhere You'll See Rory
Lisburn Road Clinic
385 Lisburn Road, Belfast BT9 7EP
Monday–Friday 9 am–6 pm, Saturday 9 am–1 pm
First floor — stair access only (no lift)
Our flagship clinic with full access to diagnostic ultrasound, VALD ForceDecks force plates, and the wider MSK team. Please note this clinic is accessed via stairs. If you require step-free access, please book at our Ormeau Road clinic.
Ormeau Road Clinic
373 Ormeau Road, Belfast BT7 3GP
By appointment
Fully accessible — lift access to clinic
Convenient for patients in East and South Belfast. Fully accessible via lift — ideal for patients with mobility difficulties, wheelchair users, or those with pushchairs.
Both locations offer the same standard of care. Choose whichever is most convenient when you join the waitlist — you can switch between clinics at any time.
Physiotherapy Appointments & Pricing
Transparent pricing, no upsells. Your first appointment includes a full clinical assessment and hands-on treatment — not a 20-minute consultation that ends with a bigger bill.
New Patient — Initial Consultation
£7045 min
Full clinical history, hands-on assessment, movement and strength testing, a clear diagnosis, your first treatment, and a personalised home exercise programme.
Ideal for: first appointment, new or recurring injury, post-surgical referral, persistent pain you can’t resolve
Follow-Up Treatment
£6030 min
Hands-on treatment, progress review, progressive rehab loading, programme updates, and return-to-sport planning.
Ideal for: existing physio patients in ongoing rehab
What Our Physiotherapy Covers
Lower Limb Physiotherapy
Foot, ankle, knee, hip and lower back rehab. Running injuries, tendinopathy, post-injection rehab and post-surgical rehabilitation — fully integrated with our podiatry and orthotics pathway.
Upper Limb Physiotherapy
Shoulder, elbow, wrist and hand rehab. Rotator cuff issues, frozen shoulder, tennis and golfer’s elbow, post-surgical rehabilitation and chronic upper limb pain.
Sports Physiotherapy
Sports injury assessment, hands-on treatment and progressive return-to-sport programming. Runners, GAA, rugby, football, hockey, swimming — we work with the demands of your sport, not against them.
Rheumatology & Inflammatory Joint Conditions
Specialist physiotherapy for rheumatoid arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, axial spondyloarthritis, psoriatic arthritis and osteoarthritis — a rare specialism in private MSK clinics in Northern Ireland.
VALD Strength, Power & ROM Testing
Objective testing using VALD ForceDecks force plates and VALD DynaMo muscle dynamometry. Bilateral strength (in Newtons), power, jump asymmetry, reactive strength, and joint range-of-motion captured digitally and tracked over time. The same testing platform used by Premiership football clubs, Premier Rugby and Olympic programmes.
Athlete Screening & Return-to-Sport Testing
Pre-season screening, in-season monitoring and return-to-sport readiness for runners, GAA, rugby, football and field-sport athletes. Objective benchmarks for post-ACL, post-Achilles and other surgical-rehab milestones — no more 'feels ready' guesswork.
Shockwave Therapy + Loading Pathway
NICE-recommended focused shockwave therapy delivered in clinic and combined with structured physiotherapy loading — the evidence-based pair for stubborn tendinopathies. Chronic plantar fasciitis, mid-portion and insertional Achilles, patellar tendinopathy, calcific shoulder, gluteal tendinopathy and tennis/golfer's elbow. £90 per session.
Integrated MSK Care
When imaging clarifies a diagnosis, our diagnostic ultrasound is in the same building. When orthotics are part of the answer, we make them in-house at Réalta Labs. One clinical pathway, one coordinated team.
Conditions We Treat
ITB pain, shin splints, runner’s knee, calf strains, return-to-run programmes
Mid-portion and insertional Achilles pain — loading programmes that work
Persistent heel pain rehab — combined with shockwave where indicated
Patellofemoral pain, post-meniscectomy and post-ACL rehab
Mechanical low back pain, sciatica, return-to-activity rehab
Rotator cuff tendinopathy, impingement, post-surgical rehab
Adhesive capsulitis — staged manual therapy and loading
Lateral and medial epicondylalgia — evidence-based loading and grip retraining
ACL, ankle stabilisation, shoulder, foot/ankle surgery — surgeon-aligned protocols
Rheumatoid arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, psoriatic and axial SpA
Gluteal tendinopathy, FAI, post-hip-replacement rehab
Hamstring, groin, ankle, collision-sport injuries — return-to-sport testing
Why Choose Lower Limb Clinic as Your Belfast Physiotherapist?
A specialist, not a generalist
Our physiotherapy service is led by a Chartered Physiotherapist with deep expertise in musculoskeletal and sports rehab — plus rare rheumatology specialism for inflammatory joint conditions. We focus on conditions we can move the needle on, not everything under the sun.
Diagnostic ultrasound under the same roof
When imaging clarifies your diagnosis, it happens in the same building — not a six-week NHS waiting list or a separate scan appointment. Your physiotherapist works alongside clinicians trained in musculoskeletal ultrasound.
Objective testing with VALD ForceDecks
VALD ForceDecks force plates and muscle dynamometry give us real, measurable data on your strength, power, asymmetry and readiness — the same technology used by Premiership football clubs and Olympic programmes. No more guesswork on whether you’re ready to return to sport.
MCSP & HCPC registered
Chartered Society of Physiotherapy member and Health and Care Professions Council registered — the two regulatory standards that matter for private physiotherapy in the UK. BUPA and WPA recognised.
One coordinated MSK pathway
Assessment, imaging, shockwave, injection therapy, custom orthotics, hands-on physio and progressive rehab — coordinated by one team. No referral loops between clinics. No lost information. One clinical record, one plan, one goal.
No referral, no waiting list
Book directly online or by phone from August 2026. See your physiotherapist within days, not months. No GP referral letter needed for any appointment.
Objective Testing — Data, Not Guesswork
Most rehab gets benchmarked against how you feel. Ours gets benchmarked against numbers — force in Newtons, jump symmetry as a percentage, range of motion in degrees, tracked over time on the VALD cloud platform. The same objective testing standard used by Premiership football clubs, Premier Rugby and Olympic programmes, in Belfast, for runners, GAA players and post-surgical patients.
Bilateral force plates — power, jump & asymmetry
Dual force plates capturing ground reaction forces in real time at 1,000Hz. The gold standard for measuring lower-limb power, side-to-side asymmetry, reactive strength and how well your body absorbs and rebounds load.
- Countermovement, squat and drop-jump tests
- Left-vs-right asymmetry (the post-ACL benchmark)
- Reactive strength index (how fast you absorb & rebound force)
- Force-time curves & rate of force development
- Landing mechanics & single-leg power
Muscle dynamometry — strength & range of motion
Handheld dynamometer that measures the actual peak force a muscle group can produce in Newtons — and captures joint range of motion via a built-in goniometer. Far more precise than manual muscle testing or tape-measure estimates.
- Quadriceps, hamstring, calf, hip, ankle, grip strength
- Active & passive joint range of motion in degrees
- Side-to-side strength asymmetry tracked over time
- Rotator cuff & shoulder isometric profiles
- Post-surgical strength & ROM benchmarks
Who this data actually helps
Post-surgical patients
Post-ACL, post-Achilles, post-rotator cuff, post-meniscectomy. Objective strength + ROM benchmarks at every milestone — the data your surgeon wants to see before clearing return to sport.
Runners
Hamstring, calf, quad and glute strength profiling. Catch the asymmetry that's driving your recurring injury before it sidelines another training block.
GAA, rugby & field-sport athletes
Pre-season screening for hamstring & ACL injury risk. Return-to-play readiness after injury, not based on a 6-week clock but on whether your strength and power profile actually match a healthy athlete's.
Chronic and recurring pain
When pain has lasted months and rehab feels stuck, objective testing finds what you're actually weak in — and what's already strong. Most of what people think is weak isn't. Most of what's actually limiting them is.
Every test is recorded in the VALD cloud platform. We can produce a written report with benchmarks and targets to share with your surgeon, S&C coach, or another physio. Testing is included in your physiotherapy assessment where clinically indicated — see our dedicated VALD strength testing page for stand-alone screening.
Shockwave + Physiotherapy Loading — the evidence-based pair
Some chronic tendinopathies don't resolve with rehab alone. Others don't resolve with shockwave alone. The clinical evidence is consistent that the two together — NICE-recommended focused shockwave to stimulate tissue remodelling, then a structured progressive loading programme to rebuild capacity — outperforms either intervention in isolation. Lower Limb has offered shockwave therapy in-clinic for over a decade. From August 2026, Rory's physiotherapy service closes the loop — same building, same clinical record, one plan.
How the pathway works
- 1Diagnostic assessment — clinical examination plus diagnostic ultrasound where indicated. Confirms tendon involvement, rules out alternatives, defines the structure to load.
- 2Shockwave course — typically 3–6 weekly sessions at our Lisburn Road clinic. EMS Swiss DolorClast focused shockwave at clinical protocol intensity. £90 per session.
- 3Progressive loading programme — physiotherapist-led, starting at the tissue tolerance level identified at assessment. Eccentric, heavy-slow, or isometric protocols depending on the diagnosis.
- 4Objective re-test — VALD strength and ROM checks at milestones. Return-to-sport when the data says you're ready, not when the calendar says so.
Conditions this pathway suits
- Chronic plantar fasciitis — heel pain ≥3 months that hasn't responded to standard care
- Mid-portion Achilles tendinopathy — the classic eccentric-loading + shockwave combination
- Insertional Achilles tendinopathy — heel-bone pain, modified loading required
- Patellar tendinopathy (jumper's knee) — common in basketball, volleyball, GAA
- Gluteal tendinopathy — lateral hip pain, often misdiagnosed
- Calcific shoulder tendinopathy — rotator cuff calcification
- Tennis & golfer's elbow — lateral / medial epicondylalgia
- Greater trochanteric pain syndrome — chronic lateral hip pain
Your Clinical Team
Physiotherapy at Lower Limb sits inside a wider MSK team. Your physiotherapist works alongside our specialist podiatrists when imaging, injections or orthotics are part of the answer.
Rory McIntyre
BSc(Hons) Physiology & Sport Science · MSc Physiotherapy (Leeds) · MCSP · HCPC Registered
Chartered Physiotherapist (joining August 2026)
Donegal-born, Leeds-trained Chartered Physiotherapist returning home from Australia. Nearly a decade in Glasgow as Highly Specialist Physiotherapist (Rheumatology) at NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde and Lead Physiotherapist for the National Axial Spondyloarthritis Society. Specialist in MSK, sports rehab and inflammatory joint conditions. Past work with British Athletics middle-distance runners and professional soccer teams.
Paul McMullan
BSc(Hons) MSc FRCPSGlasg MRCPod
Lead Podiatrist & Clinical Director
Founder of Lower Limb Clinic and Réalta Labs. Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow. MSc in Podiatric Sports Medicine from Queen Mary University of London. Diagnoses MSK conditions and refers into the physiotherapy pathway where rehab is the right next step.
Darren Costello
BSc(Hons) MSc MRCPSGlasg PGCert
Specialist Podiatrist
MSc in Sports & Exercise Medicine. Diagnostic ultrasound, injection therapy and biomechanical assessment. Works alongside our physiotherapy team on integrated MSK cases.
Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions about Physiotherapist Belfast at Lower Limb Clinic.
Join the Waitlist
- First to book, first to launch pricing
- MCSP & HCPC registered
- Inside Belfast's top-rated MSK clinic
Our Clinics
Lisburn Road
385 Lisburn Rd, Belfast BT9 7EP
Mon–Fri 9am–6pm, Sat 9am–1pm
Ormeau Road
373 Ormeau Rd, Belfast BT7 3GP
By appointment
Already a patient?
If you're currently being seen by one of our podiatrists for an MSK condition, Rory's physiotherapy service will plug into your existing care plan from August. Mention it at your next appointment.
Meet the team →First in line for Belfast's newest specialist physio?
Join the waitlist now to be offered the first appointments when our service opens in August 2026 — no GP referral needed, no fee to join.
MCSP & HCPC registered · BUPA recognised · Integrated MSK care