Stu and the USSF should have investigations conducted and if they find recklessness/negligence on the part of Bolton; sue their freaking asses. Send them back to the Championship. On second thought they should be sent back to League One. They were going back to the Championship without Stu, which like I deduced beforehand, was probably the reason why he was activated ahead of normal schedule. The initial prognosis was even very optimistic, so for him to return before that was ridiculous. With American sports franchises players typically return well after the prognosis suggested. They're trying not to be alarmists after the injury.
Well, I thought it was some sort of ligament something-or-other, so I did the two-second Wikipedia glance, where there popped up the ACL info. (Yeah yeah, I know -- Wikipedia, blah blah blah. But someone like Holden is popular enough that you figure a major factoid won't sit there like that if it's glaringly wrong.) But if it wasn't his ACL specifically, my apologies. Frankly, I'd quit keeping tabs on the details because Bolton was so annoyingly vague and secretive about the whole thing.
It was ligament damage. http://www.premierleague.com/page/Headlines/0,,12306~2320999,00.html The fracture report came out later and looks like b.s. to me because it has a more sunny prognosis.
1) you do know that Holden's day job is playing for Bolton, not the USA? Do you hoenstly not think the USSF would be walking a tightrope if it got involved in this or would have any actual grounds to sue? 2) despite the everything written so far on this thread, there's actually been no suggestion that his injury is due to theneglient behaviour of anyone. Not the club, his doctors or Holden himself. Cartilage damage is a wear and tear injury, it's not the sort of thing that usually happens overnight. Trust me I know all about knees and cartilage, I've got a torn cartilage in my knee right now and I'm waiting for an MRI scan. I diagnosis a healthy dose of perspective here.
i think he meant masticate. man, i feel for stu, whatever the case. he has been so close to stardom, real leader-of-a-solid-epl-team stardom, a la demps and howard. first a random bottle attack outside of a sunderland nightclub and now this... and to think, would he have come back to the states if the latter hadn't happened? would we even know about him? would he and evans have been in each others' shoes, for bolton and man u? i think i said it 6 months ago, but i wish the guy luck. maybe he's just too beautiful for this world.
It was a fracture. "Holden had been sidelined for five months since a studs-up challenge by Manchester United defender Johnny Evans left him with a leg fracture that cost him the rest of the Premier League season. Holden had surgery on the knee, which included having pins inserted to help the fracture heal, and the original prognosis was a six-to-nine month recovery period." http://msn.foxsports.com/foxsoccer/...njury-interview-bolton-reserves-fulham-083011 He was still on crutches 12 weeks after the injury. An ACL repair, you should be walking within a week (unless you have a meniscus repair - in which case 6 weeks non weight bearing)
Going off the wording from the club it appears they recognized there was ligament damage that possibly needed repair but was hoping to wait until the offseason. A team hoping a player can grind through injury until a certain date is fairly common. The worry to me isn't Holden's health but the possibility of having to go through a professional wilderness before he getting first team football in the prem again. He may return to a new coach and central midfield. Bolton has to move on if it's to survive...
the main difference is Holden's injuries are due to bad luck more than anything, JOB had an actual morphological issue that led to him being injured.
I guess my view is the knee is a pretty mechanical thing. They know the good, bad and ugly after a scan and especially if they have been in there with their little cameras. Sounds like they saw the tear and everyone decided to take a chance. Hargreaves is worse. Injections don't heal anything and as soon as they say it will run for a second opinion. Especially with a cartilage tear, you will must make it worse and not feel it. When I tore my ACL it wasn't a full tear and I thought I just had a sprain (I think a sprained ankle is ten times more painful at the time of injury than an ACL). I went back to playing and did quite a bit more damage to the cartilage which sucks because you can't really fix it -- just cut the torn up bits off. As an aside, I was taking fish oil pills for a bit with Vitamin D (blood test showed I was slightly low) and it seemed to have the unintended effect of making my knee feel much better. It hurts like hell now from playing too much and I am going to go back on the fish pills and see what happens. A bit of internet research shows they have some anti-inflammtory properties (but so does Ibuprofen and I take plenty of that).
I didn't see this mentioned earlier, but the cartilage damage was caused by the pins shifting in Stuart's knee: "It had been hoped the pins could be removed next summer, but, after complaining of pain and swelling after his first-team comeback, Holden was booked in on Wednesday to undergo a follow-up procedure, which was expected to sideline him for six weeks. On closer inspection, surgeons found that the pins had actually shifted slightly, causing damage to the cartilage, and the bad news was only conveyed to the player after he woke up from the anaesthetic." http://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/sport/9279824.Coyle_refuses_to_play_blame_game_after_Holden_setback/
This is exactly why I think Holden is unlucky, and has given me hope for Holden at the same time.All of his injuries have came from "external" sources. Opponents harsh challenges and pins in his knees. Other players with reoccuring injuries reoccur because thier body fails them. Hopefully he can fully recover from this.
But knee injuries still take their toll on a player and repeated leg/knee injuries no matter the source are cause for concern in a player getting back to where they were. Sure, it is doable (fingers cross, knock on wood) but it also has the potential to take a step of speed/mobility. Good luck and good health to Holden. Hope this is his last surgery/rehab stint.
I am glad the new was only conveyed to the player after he woke up from the anaesethetic. While it would have been both easier on the doctor, and Stu himself, to be told he was going to be out for another 6 months while he was in a drug induced coma, it might not have really sunk in ...