Matts Return to Football

by Matt
(Summerville, SC)

My Sophomore year in High School i was playing Varsity Football for a small private school. Technically it was spring training of my Freshman year. I was playing scout special teams when i planted in a divot on the practice field trying to cut i hear a pop, go down in pain, and limp off the field.(also broke my wrist earlier that day but different story). Well i see a doctor and get an MRI, it turns out i had an Avulsion Fracture where the ACL pulled some bone off my Tibia and tore the ACL very very slightly. He cleaned it out and i was cleared to play in several weeks. He thought it was such a slight tear it would not affect me. Lets just say he was way wrong. In fact i never regained most of my athletic ability and As the season went on it got worse and worse. At first my knee gave out when i was engaged and tried to make a cut. Swelled up for a week and was stiff but fine afterward. Then it happened after the season while i was powercleaning. Then it gave out playing some extremely light basketball. After that it gave out carrying wieghts down steps. I had seen the doctor who did the surgery after the 1st and 3rd ones and he beleived it was due to weak muscles surrounding my knee.(i sort of didn't explain how bad it was though). Then finally it gave out the next spring training running in a straight line.

After that i decided to get an MRI. It clearly showed a buck and handle meniscus tear, but he could not tell about the ACL. I go in for surgery and he says if he sees a torn ACL he is repairing. Well i wake up and can't feel my leg and there was so many bandages i knew i had a reconstruction. Needless to say i was so bummed as i would have started my Junior year. I had the surgery on June 10.

After a few weeks of the standard post-op procedure,(without pain medicine due to some past abuse problems. I denied the medicine and decided to tough it out. Well i went to my first PT and my Flexion was an impressive 100, but my Extension was 40! I got that down to normal in about a week. I was walking after three weeks. I was also doing standard exercises such a stationary bike.

This is when i started to get better freakishly fast. I corrected my gate in 5 minutes after walking. I had full quad sets 1 week to 2 weeks after starting them and lost the brace at a month. Then after strengthening i could Jog 2 weeks later(they did not want me to though so i waited 2 more weeks.) At that 2 month point i was jogging without pain(Out of shape though). Then things started getting even faster. On leg press i was doing close to 250 pounds, and was able to start sprinting at 2 1/2 months along with suicides and other change of direction drills along with jumping. It was moving along so well i stopped PT on september 8, because there was nothing more i could with them i couldn't at home.

At about 3 1/2 months, 4 weeks into the season i saw my doctor, and he gave me some of the best news i have ever heard. I was cleared to play. Albeit i wore a brace and was not as good as i was, but was more athletic than i was my sophomore season thanks to the healthy knee.

All in all i thought i would share a story about how fast i was able to return. The doctor said 7-9 months and i did it in three.