Bonzi Wells did, Al Harrington did, Jamal Crawford did, Lou Williams did. Baron Davis tore his ACL in college and went on to a have a great career and Im sure there are a few more examples out there. Russell Westbrook never tore his ACL but did tear his meniscus and had other knee issues and came back stronger.
In football Frank Gore tore both his acls in college and is like 4th on the all time rushing list. Adrian Peterson came back just as good. I would imagine it's harder to come from. back in soccer because it's basically just 90 minutes of cutting
It's still kind of a crapshoot with ACL's in that some people recover very well from them, and sometimes players don't ever get back to 100%. That said, medical professionals have gotten leaps and bounds better at fixing the injury over the last few decades. More guys come back at top gear than ever before.
Update: Gedion Zelalem back running outside again as he steps up his recovery from his latest injury setback.— Jeorge Bird (@jeorgebird) October 12, 2018
He’s alive!!! Gedion Zelalem back in training for Arsenal after 16 months out with a cruciate knee ligament injury. pic.twitter.com/EjW2lKuo51— Chris Wheatley (@ChrisWheatley) October 12, 2018
Sounds more serious than a typical ACL Djordje Mihailovic was injured 5 months after Gedion with an ACL tear & he’s been back well over a month
Right in line with the luck our promising Yanks have had with their injuries. 16 months sounds generous looking at guys like Gyau and Gatt.
Yeah, also sounds like it could be one of those stories you sometimes hear about where something goes wrong with the initial surgery, so they then have to go back and redo it.
I know you weren't the one to make this comparison. You were only answering the question. But IMO basketball is very different than soccer. Basketball: thinner talent pool (game less global, very few people have the requisite height/wingspan) so there are far fewer people who can come in and take your job. The initial emphasis is skewed much further toward athleticism on the skills vs. athlete spectrum. As a result, there are a lot of players who hit the NBA who aren't up to par skillwise who go on to develop those skills (in addition to reading the game better). A lot of players don't hit "peak skills" until about 26-27. Soccer is played nearly everywhere. It's also very forgiving with respect to body type/stature, so the premium has always been on early technical development. Riding athletic ability has never really been sufficient. As a result, a 19 year old is much closer to a finished product technically. The rest is just continuing to read the game better. What we see with a lot of NBA guys who tear ACLs is that they are forced to abandon the explosive part of their game for more of an "old man game" with the emphasis on being a more well rounded player: shooting, floor spacing. There are fixable technical deficiencies that persist in NBAers into their mid 20s. That's what happens with a lot of those guys who get better post ACL injury. There isn't an analogous adjustment in soccer.
This is a guy who needs to run out of contract at Arsenal. The guys has been getting paid (who knows how much) to play what amounts to travel soccer for his entire life. He's had a pretty cushy birth doing so at Arsenal, but I don't see him ever making a name for himself there. He needs to find a lower level once he is fit and build his career like most players do from the ground up. It just seems that when players like this start at clubs like Arsenal, it is the extreme exception that has long term success at the club. Aim lower, distinguish yourself at a club, become a target for bigger clubs through success on the field. Another view on this could be more cynical though: he may never actually have been able to succeed in soccer, but has made an awful lot of money and not too much stress over the years he has spent at Arsenal because he was a very promising youth player. Not sure which is better.
yeah, i mean a youth player signing at a big club guarantees nothing for that player's future...but I don't think signing with a big club should be off the table. the attrition rate for all prospects in all sports is very high. perhaps people just need to adjust their expectations of unproven players, even ones at big clubs. i dont think zelelam's career would have been better off if he was at a small club instead of arsenal. let's see how weah's career turns out...i think that was smart of him to go to psg and to stick it out there..... the less rungs a player has to climb to get to the top the better, imo....signing with a lower club just means you are adding rungs to your climb. look at pulisic, too. he started at a big club...was indeed good enough and bam...youngest in bundesliga recordbooks with a few marks now. if pulisic had chosen a smaller club - god forbid MLS - he miht not have even been on the USMNT yet at all -and most likely woudlnt be in the position he is in now for a 100m transfer. in some cases, you might be on to something - maybe a player overshoots it a bit and ends up being hurt - but i dont think that was the case with zelalem and i dont think it is the case with the best talents - if they dont stick they probably werent good enough anyway.
📝 The teams are in! Here’s how #AFCU21 line up against @CTFCofficial in the @CheckatradeTrpy this evening…Starting XI: Iliev, Sheaf, Medley, Ballard, Bola, Gilmour, Olayinka, Burton, Coyle, Saka, John-JulesSubs: Hein, Bramall, Thompson, Smith, Zelalem, Tormey, Balogun pic.twitter.com/xIcecLhqWa— Arsenal Academy (@ArsenalAcademy) October 30, 2018 Zelalem is on the bench in Arsenal U-21's second group stage match in the Checkatrade Trophy. He was also on the bench for their first game on September 12.
wow crazy he's still young enough (21) for a u-21 team....somehow he's been around so long i thought he was at least a few years older....
Our second change of the evening... ⬅️ Bola ➡️ Zelalem 🔴 4-1 🔵 (63)#AFCU21— Arsenal Academy (@ArsenalAcademy) October 30, 2018
Looks like they lost 6-2. GZ obviously sucks, played the ball sideways ..and backwards the whole time, I assume. Kids got no future. Mods, close thread.
Champtions League starters? What are you smoking? A prospect is a just a prospect. About 1 out of 50 "mega" prospects has a decent career. A real prospect is already performing by age 20. Example A: Mbappe is 19 and has won a World Cup. Now that's a mega-prospect. At 20.... Ronaldo was a starter for Man U. Messi was a starter for Barcelona. Pogba was a starter for Juventus. Neymar was a starter for Santos. Zlatan was a starter for Ajax. So Green and Zelalem are nowhere near that level. Training with the first team is light years away from starting for the first team.
The problem is that, you ignore the late-bloomers. For example, Clint Dempsey was playing college soccer at 19 and then by the time he was in his Prime, he was a Champions-League Level talent who scored 17 goals in the EPL one season as a midfielder.