Return to Football after Cruciate Ligament Op.

gallagbr

Hi all,

I ruptured my Anterior cruciate ligament back in 2004 playing soccer (on Achill Island above all places) after my studs stuckin the ground and my leg buckled.

At the time I did not realise this as I had been to my local GP and 2 different physios and nobody suspected that I had torn my ACL (probably because I was 15 at the time). Anyway I kept playing football while my knee twisted occasionally, swelling up and putting me out of action for a few weeks at a time. I finally got fed up of this and went to a knee specialist who informed me that im ACL was ruptured.

I had the patellor tendon graft done and done the recommended excercises in rehab. I dont think my rehab was as effective as it should have been because of a lack of motivation on my part and a poor physio.

I've done alot of cycling since the operation and dabbled in rowing but I have not played contact sports since the operation just the odd game indoor soccer and now I want to return again because I just miss it too much.

I am having major psychological trouble in trusting my knee again for a return to football or any contact sport for that matter. My knee does not seem as strong to me as my other leg even though it probably is. I have had a few incidents sinces where I could feel it was about to buckle but did not (while ice skating and playing indoor soccer). Maybe I have been overcompensating on my good leg for too long?

I know it sounds as if its all in my head but it really worries me that if I play again with studs on my boots it will happen again. I dont want to experience that old familiar pain of the knee buckling again and it is really putting me off return to football again.

Its been 5 years since the surgery and am still only 21 so I want to make up for lost time. I am wondering if anyone has any advice or similiar experiences or could recommend a good physio or knee specialist in dublin or belfast that could have a look at my knee and tell me if it is strong enough for contact sports again.

Cheers

gallagbr

gallagbr wrote: »

Hi all,

I ruptured my Anterior cruciate ligament back in 2004 playing soccer (on Achill Island above all places) after my studs stuckin the ground and my leg buckled.

At the time I did not realise this as I had been to my local GP and 2 different physios and nobody suspected that I had torn my ACL (probably because I was 15 at the time). Anyway I kept playing football while my knee twisted occasionally, swelling up and putting me out of action for a few weeks at a time. I finally got fed up of this and went to a knee specialist who informed me that im ACL was ruptured.

I had the patellor tendon graft done and done the recommended excercises in rehab. I dont think my rehab was as effective as it should have been because of a lack of motivation on my part and a poor physio.

I've done alot of cycling since the operation and dabbled in rowing but I have not played contact sports since the operation just the odd game indoor soccer and now I want to return again because I just miss it too much.

I am having major psychological trouble in trusting my knee again for a return to football or any contact sport for that matter. My knee does not seem as strong to me as my other leg even though it probably is. I have had a few incidents sinces where I could feel it was about to buckle but did not (while ice skating and playing indoor soccer). Maybe I have been overcompensating on my good leg for too long?

I know it sounds as if its all in my head but it really worries me that if I play again with studs on my boots it will happen again. I dont want to experience that old familiar pain of the knee buckling again and it is really putting me off return to football again.

Its been 5 years since the surgery and am still only 21 so I want to make up for lost time. I am wondering if anyone has any advice or similiar experiences or could recommend a good physio or knee specialist in dublin or belfast that could have a look at my knee and tell me if it is strong enough for contact sports again.

Cheers

Anyone??

Dublin2Physio

5 years on your graft should be fine- Your knee should not buckle unless you tear it again.

Before returning to sports involving studded boots you need to make sure that
(A) you have full range of movement in the knee compared to the non operated knee, no joint swelling and no pain.
(B) That your hamstrings are equally strong on both sides
(C) That your quadriceps on the operated side are more than 85% the strength of the non-affected side. [At 5 years on you really should be back to equal strength]
(D) That your performance on the following tests is equal
Single leg hop
20ft single leg hop for time
Vertical Jump
(E) Hamstrings strength to Quadriceps strength should be 70% or greater.

You'll also need to start doing some sports specific drills to get you used to running in studs and to get you used to the rapid rotation and changing of direction involved in soccer.

visit www.cpsem.org and use the find a sports physio search item to find a sports physio in Ireland

for NI www.acpsm.org has a list of chartered sports physios

Hope this helps

Kent Brockman

If you can play indoor soccer you should be fine.Indoor is harder on the joints than playing on grass.
Good foot wear will be very important.
Ease yourself back in, jog on the grass wearing football boots, then sprint/stop etc and build up your confidence.
Have a kick around with 2 or 3 mates and just get the feel for it again.
You could also wear a flexible knee support to give you more confidence.

If you have the medical all-clear, then go for it and best of luck.

J-Fit

I'm not a physio so take my advice lightly, but I did had a serious knee injury at one point and I found the rehab strategy at the time totally incompetent. Probably because it was given to me by a surgeon rather than a sports injury specialist. In my experience seated leg extensions do nothing but get the joint moving in the weeks post op but your well beyond that now. You need to perform strength exercises in which your foot is in contact with the ground and is thus utilising the muscles that are recruited when running. If you find this difficult, use unweighted exercises first and graduate to single leg work with dumbells in either hand. As has been said, you should be able to handle this as you're 5 years beyond surgery. If I remember correctly, deep squatting movements whereby the femur breaks parallel only places major forces on the posterior cruciate so this shouldn't have too much of an effect on you. If your not feeling ocnfident on that leg it's probably because it is weak an unstable and when you strengthen it, your confidence should follow.

J-Fit

Kent Brockman wrote: »

If you can play indoor soccer you should be fine.Indoor is harder on the joints than playing on grass.
Good foot wear will be very important.
Ease yourself back in, jog on the grass wearing football boots, then sprint/stop etc and build up your confidence.
Have a kick around with 2 or 3 mates and just get the feel for it again.
You could also wear a flexible knee support to give you more confidence.

If you have the medical all-clear, then go for it and best of luck.

Sorry I just saw this post. I don't think this is the approach he should take at all. He's already been doing this! I've seen guys do this with no strength work and their injured leg just gets carried around like a redundant piece of stick. By all means keep playing but he should strengthen the area as there is a good chance that the surrounding musculatur is still atrophied and once he gets back to full strength there should be no need for a support. I used one of these needlessly as a mental cruch for two years and had I been given the correct rehab measures, I'd have never had too.

Dublin2Physio

J-Fit wrote: »

but I did had a serious knee injury at one point and I found the rehab strategy at the time totally incompetent. Probably because it was given to me by a surgeon rather than a sports injury specialist.

@J-Fit
I think part of the problem lies with the HSE - the programmes issued with you when you are discharged and for your follow up sessions are only the initial steps designed to restore as much normal function at the early stages without risking the outcome. Public health programmes will never have enough funding to provide people with all the skilled rehab to get back to 100% performance

Kent Brockman

gallagbr wrote: »

I had the patellor tendon graft done and done the recommended excercises in rehab.

I've done alot of cycling since the operation and dabbled in rowing but I have not played contact sports since the operation just the odd game indoor soccer

I am having major psychological trouble in trusting my knee again for a return to football or any contact sport for that matter. My knee does not seem as strong to me as my other leg even though it probably is.
I know it sounds as if its all in my head but it really worries me that if I play again with studs on my boots it will happen again.

I have quoted the relevant bits-
He says he has done the recommended exercises in rehab.
He says he has done alot of cycling and rowing and ice skating and indoor football.
His leg seems to be fine now and these activities along with his initial rehab exercises will have helped his leg (its been 5 years!)

My advice was to help him gain confidence to play on grass with studs again (which is where he understandably has confidence issues).
I am aware that the knee bandage is also a confidence thing.

injured365

Dublin2Physio wrote: »

@J-Fit
I think part of the problem lies with the HSE - the programmes issued with you when you are discharged and for your follow up sessions are only the initial steps designed to restore as much normal function at the early stages without risking the outcome. Public health programmes will never have enough funding to provide people with all the skilled rehab to get back to 100% performance

Huge problem here.....when i was recovering from a broken leg i was told by the doctor in the hospital that if i want to play sports again soon i should go to a private physio, if i want to manage everyday life go to the hospital physios. All the HSE look for is that you can manage life without pain, not go back playing sports or push yourself physically.
I know people who were advised to give up sports by physios working for the public health programmes, yet most of them are back playing sports now after a proper rehab scheme.

spence101

Hi OP, im in a fairly similar situation, ruptured ACL at 17, now 22 and back playing football competively.

Follow the advice given in the thread already, its all perfect, its so important to have equal strength, or close enough on your legs as you will just pick up more injuries on your weaker side, first six months i returned to competitive football i picked up a pulled hamstring, strained calf, a hip abductor injury as well as twisting my knee itself and having medial ligament damage.

but after a two years out i decided to give it another shot and strenghtened my leg muscles and have very little problems since then, although i have lost half a yard of pace, i am slowly regaining sharpness in turning and acceleration.

as for getting over your injury psychologically, its very tough to be honest, personally i picked up my injury when going in for a sliding tackle so i found it very difficult in making challenges, but after a few games i slowly regained my confidence and when placed in a situation where a last ditch sliding tackle was needed i didnt think twice, so for me it was just about getting over the initial brudge and i havent looked back.

but my advice would be get the all clear from a physio, get back running at your own pace and test your turning at speed in all directions and when your feeling confident get back playing a bit a ball. after two years out i cant tell ya how much i missed it!!

Good luck man in anyways, let me know how your progressing.

chocgirl

injured365 wrote: »

Huge problem here.....when i was recovering from a broken leg i was told by the doctor in the hospital that if i want to play sports again soon i should go to a private physio, if i want to manage everyday life go to the hospital physios. All the HSE look for is that you can manage life without pain, not go back playing sports or push yourself physically.
I know people who were advised to give up sports by physios working for the public health programmes, yet most of them are back playing sports now after a proper rehab scheme.

As a physio who has worked privately and publicly and often at the same time, I just want to point out that there is very little difference between the physios in the HSE and those in private practice, they're usually working to the same protocol from the surgeon anyway.

Where the difference can occur is in the timeframe they are working to. HSE physios are under pressure to get people off their books in a set number of sessions. Having said that if a patient requires additional physio beyond this they are usually encouraged to go privately for follow up.

I'm surprised at a doctor saying that, especially when there is a huge difference between the work of surgeons, as someone who has seen hundreds of knees post ACL, I know which surgeons I'd avoid.

gallagbr

Thanks for the responses guys. I'm going to find a physio one the days and give the football another crack all going well. Hopefully my confidence in the knee will improve once i get the boots on again!

mattdam0n

Hey guys just wondering do any of ye have experience of ACL surgery with Paraic Murray, Fintan Shannon or Stephen Kearns in Galway?

gandroid

mattdam0n wrote: »

Hey guys just wondering do any of ye have experience of ACL surgery with Paraic Murray, Fintan Shannon or Stephen Kearns in Galway?

Not sure if you're still interested but I do with one of the above. If you need to pick my brain and ask a few questions feel free to PM me...