An athlete’s worst nightmare

If you are a sportsman, then once or many times during your professional period, you will definitely undergo one or the other kind of injury. There are many types of injury that happen to an athlete, but the most famous one is the ACL or anterior cruciate ligament injury. It is painful but not that much if you take proper care by following the doctor. Female athletes are more prone to ACL injury because of their internal body structure which is different from male. 

                                       

So ACL is located right between our knees. It is in the front part of the legs between the lower(shin) bones and the upper knee(thigh) bones. This ligament helps in bending of our legs properly. A tear to ACL can lock our legs and create problems during walking, leading to twisting of legs. ACL helps in keeping up knee joint stability.

                             

ACL is one of the ligaments in X shaped (cross-section) located with PCL in the backside of the knee. ACL injury is a common injury nowadays with over 1 million cases reported in India alone. But there is modern day surgery and proper medication available which will make any person get back to that athletic guy with no problems in the knee part. Footballers can play football and basketball players basketball without any slight difficulty after the ACL surgery.

                                             

Causes:

1. Sudden hit to the knee part like falling on the ground on the knee part.

2. Landing from a jump the wrong way.

3. Suddenly changing the direction of your knee after a fast run or walk.

4. Someone hits or tackles you at the foot part like in football.

 

Symptoms:

1. Pain, the first thing that happens when you hit your knee and have a ACL injury is the severe pain that you feel when you start to stand or even walk. So avoid pressure on the injured leg after the injury.

2. Swelling, within few hours of the injury you will have swelling around the knee. Putting ice pack around that part for the next few weeks will reduce the swelling.

3. Walking and bending troubles, you will have to put less pressure on the injured leg by not putting the leg on the ground and placing a knee brace around the knee part so that the leg will be in straight position all the time till recovery.

Possible treatments:

1. Knee bracing, it is the first treatment that is done incase of ACL injury. It is a kind of plastic brace that is worn around the knees to keep the injured leg in straight position (stable) always and to prevent further damage to the knee. They are used before the surgery and after the surgery too. It can help in regaining the strength of the muscles near the knee.

2. Surgery, it is done when there is complete tear of the ACL which mostly occurs. The surgeons will take some part from the near regions like hamstring or groin region and create a new ligament to be placed in the injured part as the new ACL. It is done by creating a hole in the knee and placing the ligament and screwing it the right place.

3. Physiotherapy, it is done by qualified physiotherapist to make your leg work properly through exercises and stretching. This helps in making your injured part stronger so that you can walk, run, cycle and do other heavy activities without any stress as you were doing before the ACL injury.

4. Rest, it is the most important treatment that is needed before the surgery and even after the surgery to make natural healing. It will help proper blood supply to inured section.

There are many athletes who have made major comebacks in various sports after undergoing ACL injury. Some of them are:

1. Tom Brady of the super bowl. In 2008 he had ACL and MCL injury. In 2015 he came back and was awarded the MVP.

2. Zlatan Ibrohimavich, the soccer player. The famous Swedish soccer player had undergone a major ACL injury and made his comeback in 2015 with Manchester united.

3. Danny Ings, Liverpool striker. His career was in doubt because of the injury he suffered, but in 2018 he came back and scored 3 goals for Liverpool.

4. Cheteshwar Pujara, Indian Cricketer. It took him 6 months to recover from ACL injury on both his knees, but he came back and set many Test cricket records for India.

5. Tiger Woods, American golfer. During 2007 British open, he had ACL tear issue in left knee but still he came back and set many records winning 5-6 events.

6. Micky Mantle, Baseball legend. He continued to play for 17 years after his ACL injury in 1951.

7. Xavier Hernandez or Xavi, well- known Spanish and Barcelona soccer player. In 2006 his ACL injury left him out of the field for 6 months. But he came back and won many trophies for Barcelona and even World Cup for Spain in 2010.

8. Derrick Rose, American basketball player. He tore his ACL in 2012 which had been treated and now he plays for New York knicks and is also a MVP.

9. Alan Shearer, famous English soccer player. In 1992 he had ACL issue, but after few months of proper medication and rest, he came back and scored around 260 club goals and many more for the country.

So, finally to end I would like to say that, Drive your two-wheelers carefully by looking at all the possible obstructions that can come in your way like a hanging wire. Avoid driving during stormy days which can lead to ACL injury.