Anyone else ruptured their ACL?

[Joe_Sanchez]

I ruptured my Anterior Cruciate Ligament playing football last year and have just had the surgery (I had a hamstring graft).

The surgeon said I'd be back playing (although not 100%) in around 6 months. Obviously, I have loads of exercises to do each day and it's going to be tough.

I know it's a fairly common injury for footballers. Alan Shearer, Gazza and Ruud van Nistelroy have all done it. I was wondering if anyone else here has, and what their experiences of recovering and playing again were. I've heard horror stories about never getting back to playing properly and having to have further operations etc.

[vanity_soccer13]

haven't had that thank god(knock on wood).

good luck with your recovery though :)

[Joe_Sanchez]

haven't had that thank god(knock on wood).

good luck with your recovery though :)
Thank you. And I hope Barca win the Champions League (please don't let Arsenal win!)...

[vanity_soccer13]

yah, even if Barca ends up losing to A.C. Milan, and milan wins it all I'll be happy.. just so long as Arsenal doesn't win. hate arsenal, hate chelsea. so far, Barca's knocked out one of them :D

[NGV]

I know it's a fairly common injury for footballers. Alan Shearer, Gazza and Ruud van Nistelroy have all done it. I was wondering if anyone else here has, and what their experiences of recovering and playing again were. I've heard horror stories about never getting back to playing properly and having to have further operations etc.
I just had my first (and hopefully last) ACL reconstruction two weeks ago, so I can't tell you much about long term experiences, but I've read quite a bit about it. Generally, the statistics I've seen show that the success rate of the surgery is 85% or more. I imagine that number includes people who ignore the advice of doctors and physical therapists - so if you follow instructions, there should be a very good chance of getting back to full strength (of course there are no guarantees, and revision surgery is sometimes necessary).

Six months is pretty much the minimum for a complete return to sports, and many people take longer.

Because it's such a common operation, you'll find massive amounts of information about it online if you look around a bit. There are also some active discussion forums devoted specifically to the subject, like this one (http://www.kneeguru.co.uk/KNEEtalk/index.php?board=17.0) and this one (http://factotem.org/cgi-bin/kneebbs.pl).

Best of luck with your recovery.

[Joe_Sanchez]

Thanks, I'll check out those forums. Good luck too!

[Mike22]

I ruptured my Anterior Cruciate Ligament playing football last year and have just had the surgery (I had a hamstring graft).

The surgeon said I'd be back playing (although not 100%) in around 6 months. Obviously, I have loads of exercises to do each day and it's going to be tough.

I know it's a fairly common injury for footballers. Alan Shearer, Gazza and Ruud van Nistelroy have all done it. I was wondering if anyone else here has, and what their experiences of recovering and playing again were. I've heard horror stories about never getting back to playing properly and having to have further operations etc.

Well, I just tore my ACL playing soccer. I'm not sure if this is the same thing, I can't even understand you English when your write. Speak American, why don't you!;) I have surgery May 10, I'm getting a cadaver ACL put in arthroscopically. I hear the hamstring graft puts you back a lot more b/c it weakens your leg. But tell me how it goes, we can fight our battles together.

[halfnelson31]

A kid I know couldnt play soccer this spring because of his ACL being torn...but then he ended up playing on my rugby team instead which just baffles me.