here is an interesting and informative post on porzingis' injury:
fiskful of dollars said:
A coupe of things about calf injuries: [DISCLAIMER: I'n no DRS]
As radsox has ably pointed out, the grading of soft tissue injuries is difficult.
When the gastrocnemius or soleus muscles are injured the muscle fibers are torn and begin to bleed into the posterior lower leg compartment. These injuries become increasingly common with age, especially during explosive physical activities like sprinting, jumping, etc. Most data come from European soccer/rugby and tennis related injuries. However, the physiology is the same. One of the reasons the recovery time can be so variable is (naturally) the severity of the tearing forces applied to the muscle. The soleus muscle is a flat (hence the name - it looks like a flatfish/filet of sole) muscle that lies just below and beneath the larger gastroc (calf) muscle. Often determining WHICH muscle is affected can be a bit difficult. Generally, as you engage these muscles, a straight leg stretch will engage the gastroc and a bent leg stretch will engage the soleus - but that is not always determinative. KP will undoubtedly get an MRI to grade and identify the actual injury. Another confounding factor is the healing process. Once the muscle fibers are injured, there is bleeding. Sometimes this is visible as bruising on the skin- that's a sign of a severe tear. No matter what, there is some bleeding and inflammation. That has to be mitigated - usually with ice, compression and elevation with anti-inflammatory meds. The healing process - paradoxically - can actually be a bit counter productive (initially) which make the recovery unpredictable. Re-injures are super common.
Here's why: As the fibrinogen healing matrix begins to form across the injury, the lattice work of healing fibers are laid down perpendicular to the normal orientation of the healthy muscle fibers. The musculature of the gastroc and soleus run cranial/caudal (north/south), the healing matrix and scar tissue are laid down cross-wise in opposition to patch the wound and deliver blood and healing nutrients to the injury. During healing, these structures are easily re-injured, especially with any sig load placed on the muscle. So...after 48-72 hours of ice and conservative management, therapists will actually break down the scar tissue by massaging (massaging...more like grinding) the fibers in a north/south direction to break up the scar tissue and allow the muscle fibers to re-orient themselves in a physiological distribution. It's a bit of a race between healing and breaking down scar tissue...all the while hoping the muscle heals well enough to support any load. The injured fibers are weak and prone to re-injury when loaded, even once pain is gone. That makes recovery and return to play extremely unpredictable. By breaking down the scar tissue, blood flow improves and healing is more rapid. The physical therapy sessions should help to speed up his recovery. When I have a calf injury - common in middle age runners - I take a metal bar and grind it up and down my calf to accomplish the same result. It's called the Grafton technique. Yes, it hurts. There is no real correlation of this type of injury w/ an Achilles tear unless the tendon itself was injured as well. Seems unlikely. There is always some correlation between age and Achilles injuries but KPs injury seems to be isolated to the soleus/gastroc muscle complex and, as such, does NOT indicate a potential Achilles injury is more/less likely. Get well soon!
Topic: Porzingis injury updates (soleus strain) (Read 23497 times)