In May, my daughter broke both wrists in a bad fall (on concrete). She is getting her casts off in 2 weeks. The doctor has no issue with her starting to play soccer as soon as the casts are off. My daughter is the starting keeper for her team. She also plays in the field, but she always starts in goal. The coach would like to have her start playing keeper immediately, but I am concerned that this is too soon and she could be risking further damage by putting additional stress on the new bone growth. Does anyone have any experience with this type of injury and in your experience how much recovery time is necessary before someone with a broken wrist should return to playing goalkeeper?
We have dealt with broken wrists before. One with my keeper and the other with my gymnyst. Soooo let me start by saying you need to talk to your MD - I'm not doctor. But here is how it worked for us... Our Orthopedic is also a specialist in sports medicine and deals with high level athletes, so he understands trying to get kids back safely, but as quickly as possible. Both of my kids were in casts for about 4 weeks, xrays were done to confirm healing was done and then they both had exercises to do to stretch the muscles in the wrist. They had to do them multiple times daily. The kids were not released to play until they could bend their wrist fully in both directions, with no pain in the muscle or stiffness. One took only a few days and the other was about a week. One other thing...with the keeper...she was a little tentative on grabbing hard direct shots for a couple of practices. But once she was in a game situation she forgot to be 'careful' and was fine. Hope this helps...good luck!
One other thing...you mentioned strength of new bone growth. Our MD told us that new bone growth is actually stronger then old bone...and that a bone will never break in the same place as where it was broken before. It actually grows back stronger...imagine that! lol So sorry for your poor child...it is tough. Between my kids we've had broken wrists, legs, ankles and feet. one broken elbow, with a fall down the stairs at school.. All the other ones were on the field or tumbling. ughhhh...I've heard that it's better to have bones break rather than tendon's and muscle. That's my biggest fear....MCL or similiar.