Now that football season is upon us (GO EAGLES!!!!!) the Monday questions in the clinic have nothing to do with the injuries I am actually treating on people but what happened to one of the player\’s on my favorite football team. How long is he going to be out? Does he need surgery? What\’s the prognosis?
Today the hot topic was what happened to the Eagle\’s Jason Kelce after he was carted off the field on Sunday? And more importantly is he coming back for the season? This is a tough one to answer as it is a two part answer. Jason suffered two injuries. The first one that must heal is a complete tear of his medial collateral ligament (MCL). The MCL is the ligament on the inside of the knee. It protects us from the knee going to far inward.
Knee collateral ligament injuries, such as the MCL are treated without surgery. Physical therapy is usually initiated to maintain balance and hip strength. It is also imperative to manage the pain and the swelling, so modalities such as ice, heat, ultrasound and electrical stimulation are initiated immediately to being healing. He will most likely also start aquatic therapy to help maintain range of motion, strength and promote healing.
The next injury is more complicated and I know for a fact no course of action has been decided on how to handle it yet. Kelce suffered a partial anterior crutiate ligament (ACL) tear. The key word that is highlighted is partial. Had he suffered a complete tear he would be having surgery without a doubt. But the problem is that ACL surgeries will not allow him to come back for the season. He will be sidelined on week 2. Everyone is going to everything to prevent this from happening. The difficulty is the ACL is a very important ligament in running and cutting, which football players do a lot of.
The function of the ACL is to prevent the bone on the bottom of the leg, the tibia from continuing to go forward on the top bone the femur. This is evident when you plant your foot and try to cut the ligaments will prevent this from happening. There are also muscles that are going to prevent this from happening also. So currently the thinking is to hold off and see if physical therapy will help. Physical therapy for an ACL involves strengthening, balance and aquatic therapy. For now the Eagles are in a holding pattern to see how badly that is ACL is torn to see if Kelce is out for the season. And it\’s only week 2…….
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