For Those Who've Had ACL/MCL Injuries
- Thread starter Indndawg
- Start date
In HS. 6 months later I was playing tennis at about half speed with a huge brace. Got demoted from #1 singles to mixed doubles. The following fall, 1 year post injury, I was playing JUCO singles and I would say I was 90%. The following year I played again and would say I was 95%. that's as far as I got. I could play at a high level, for me, we won our region my soph yr and I won my singles region. The reason I say 95% is I never got my full range of motion back, even today - 14 years later. I would say I was in good enough shape to play effectively after about 8 months. Keep in mind this was tennis and I was 17/18 years old. My physical therapist said I was the quickest recovery he had seen for this type of injury, and he treated USMs athletics for years. The thing that really killed me with this injury is that I had to keep my leg immobilized for 6 weeks post surgery bc I had no ligaments that weren't damaged. Typically, your leg is being moved by a machine before you wake up from surgery with one torn ligament. With mine being in a cast for 6 weeks, everything froze in place and scarred over. Before I could even begin true therapy, I had to work for another month to break apart all of the scars. By that time, the ligaments got all shrunk up from inactivity. That, added to the fact that the dr put them in extra tight to begin with (to ensure everything held together through recovery) is why I never got full range back. It's impossible to do with my scenario. I cannot begin to describe the pain this caused me for 5 solid months. Now, I don't know if this applies to someone with 2 torn ligaments or how they have advanced things medically in 14 years. But this all requires a huge amount of effort and desire to overcome...total dedication. From my experience, if his recovery is similar, I am not surprised to see 8/9 months projected for recovery. I expect it to be closer to a year or 15 months since he is playing in the NFL as opposed to playing JUCO tennis.
Tore ACL & cartilage soph year in hs (97'), surgery in October, was pitching baseball late January. I must add that I worked my *** off in rehab went to gym every day twice a day. After 3 months my injured leg was 90% as strong as my good leg. But it still hurt to play on, and also I was just pitching, not cutting like in football or basketball. Never got comfortable enough to play competitive basketball/football again (outside of pickup games at sanderson)
At the time, I was frustrated that I had to stay out that long and thought I could've played through it. However, looking back now, if I had tried to pull a stunt like that, I'd have probably ripped my knee up.
AD is gonna have more and better medical attention than everyone on 6 pack combined. comparable NFL knee injuries are edgerrin james in 2001 and wes welker in the 2009 playoffs. edge was back to start the 2002 season, played in 14 games, and had nearly 1000 yards rushing after other injuries caused him to miss 2 games and slowed him at the end of the season. after that he was back to his old self until age caught up to him. welker was back by the start of the 2010 season, but did have his worst season with the pats (86 catches, 848 yards). this year he's had a big year again, so safe to say he's fully recovered.
i'd just monitor AD's rehab through the offseason. most likely he'll be back by the start of the season or early in the season. might be slowed a little bit in 2012, but should be 100% going into 2013 and beyond unless there are unforeseen complications. if you are asking for keeper purposes and can keep him well into the future, i wouldn't worry too much, just draft a nice safety net for next year and handcuff toby gerhart early in your draft. if you can't keep him past 2012, then maybe shop him in the offseason and see what you can get. but he wouldn't be worth dropping unless something weird and unexpected goes down. it ain't 1983 anymore.
i'd just monitor AD's rehab through the offseason. most likely he'll be back by the start of the season or early in the season. might be slowed a little bit in 2012, but should be 100% going into 2013 and beyond unless there are unforeseen complications. if you are asking for keeper purposes and can keep him well into the future, i wouldn't worry too much, just draft a nice safety net for next year and handcuff toby gerhart early in your draft. if you can't keep him past 2012, then maybe shop him in the offseason and see what you can get. but he wouldn't be worth dropping unless something weird and unexpected goes down. it ain't 1983 anymore.
Average Joe Sixpack, like myself, has a much, much longer recovery period. The goal of recovery is totally different as well. We have to rehab while doing our jobs. Rehab is an NFL player's job. We just have to slowly get back to a level where we can enjoy things we want to do. They have to get back as quick as they can so they can get paid.