I just wanted to clear something up about ACL tears

[moiso]

  I'd say Rondo's position might be similar to Rose's up until close to the time the doctors clear them to play, then their paths probably diverge wildly.

TP.  A full year like Rose is taking is very rare nowadays.  This isn't the Bernard King era. 

The thing that is crazy to me is that Rose has been scrimmaging for months- the exact same activity that he won't perform in front of a crowd.  I'm sure Rondo will scrimmage for a couple weeks to get his legs under him after he's cleared, then he will begin playing in actual games.  I wouldn't be surprised if Rondo is ready pretty close to the start of the regular season.

Rose seems to be having issues with the mental aspect and I won't judge him for that. Its hard, once you deal with a significant injury you lose trust in your body to be able to do the things you're used to it doing. It just sucks for Rose because the last phase if his rehab until he plays in a game.

Have we heard any inside info out of the Bulls camp? If he's participating fully in practices, it seems like something should have leaked out about his performance.

Late in March it was reported that he looked ready to go.

My guess is that he had to make a difficult choice: Continue to play like he has done in the past and risk to be out of the league much too soon (his bad health last season is an indication, that he couldn't last long), or change his game. And if he chose the latter, it makes sense that he - and the team - isn't ready yet.

Is the concern that he will re-injure himself or substantially set back his recovery by playing?

If not, I don't see the argument against playing. If so, it makes sense to wait, since at this point we are so close to the off-season.

But he is already playing and has been for a couple of months.  Just not for the benefit of the team.

Yeah, and he's no doubt training too. This is what I'm asking. Is there a concern that going full-speed will somehow put him at risk in a way that rehab and scrimmaging don't?

If not, he should suit up and give it a shot, I think.

I hadn't read about the possible muscle memory problems when I posted. To me it makes sense that he won't play if his body doesn't respond the way he wants it to. Not only will it limit his explosive style, but he would risk getting hurt trying to play like before the injury. So maybe it's rather the opposite of what I suggested: That he wants to be able to play in his usual style, before he enters a real game.

Is that what McGrady is waiting for also?

[Pucaccia]

Coming from someone who has tore his ACL before and done a lot of research into it/is interested in medicine. I'm just here to clear up some things about the "severity" of Rondo's ACL tear

The difference between a partial and full ACL tear is that without surgery, there is more you can do with a partial tear than you can do with a full tear. Basically you still have some stability in the knee with a partial tear. You can still perform with a tear of the ACL, look at Hines Ward and DeJuan Blair, but it involves all of the supporting muscles to pick up their slack which takes a lot of time. Plus, the full potential of recovery without the ACL or a partial ACL is nothing close to what it would be having surgery.


Now if both the individual with the partial tear and full tear were to have surgery, there is no difference. If there is a full tear, the orthopedic surgeon just clears the ACL ligaments floating around/any damaged miniscus and whatnot before grabbing a graft and reconstructing the ACL.

With a partial tear, the surgeon clears out whatever piece of the ACL is floating around. From that point forward from what I understand the orthopedic surgeon removes the remaining ACL as well and just puts in a whole new one in it's place after reconstructing a new one.

As a result, it's the same operation regardless. The surgeon is adding in a whole new ACL. If you had a full tear, they just put a new one in it's place. If it's a partial tear, they remove it anyway and put a full one in it's place

The time of recovery depends on where you got a graft from, you can get one from your patellar tendon (fastest healing time, larger chance of complication {but again these operations have pretty high success rates overall}), hamstring (longer healing time, safer), or from a donor(riskiest)


So in the grand scheme of things, because Rondo got surgery, his position is the same as Derrick Rose's. So expect a 6-12 month recovery time. Personally I think a 12 month window is the safest because overtraining can become an issue with those who tear their ACL's. We don't want a gilbert arenas incident going on.

Also, I expect Rondo to come back with a better jumpshot because without the ability to really jump around and stuff for a while, all you can really do is stand there and shoot the ball. I fully expect his shooting percentage to go up when he comes back

Thanks for the clarification.  Can I ask you how long it took until you felt limitless? Do you ever feel that you can do everything without worry? Psychologically, how long do you think it will take to feel 100%? 

[SparzWizard]

Iman Shumpert went down in April 2012, had surgery, came back in January 2013.

Kendrick Perkins went down in June 2010, had surgery, came back in late January 2011.

David West went down in March 2011, had surgery, came back at the start of the lockout season 2012.

Most ACL tear surgeries should take about 6-9 months of rehab. Rose just doesn't feel confident about himself so he's a scratch (apparently some people are calling him a wimp). If Rose does NOT want to return this year just say he doesn't want to return. People don't like to be kept waiting.

Rondo "tore" his ACL in late January, gets surgery in February and is in the process of rehab or recovery. From March to November, that's about 9 months. Shouldn't take over a year.

I'm confident that Rajon Rondo will be back by November (if not, December). It really doesn't take Rondo to be out for the rest (most) of next season as well.

[rasta1]

No offense but he will get way better care than you did and better aftercare.   His results should be even better.

Actually I got surgery done at q university by a guy who deals with professional athletic and college athletic teams in the area

I did my Rehab at at a similar location that works with professional/college athletes

I had a complete ACL tear, partial meniscus tear, bruising of the bones

I took a slow recovery, but was able to start running 5 months post op...at least that's when I first tried to run

I began playing basketball 8 months post op

I did not undergo my entire rehab though, after a few sessions i basically figured out what I should be doing so I rehabbed myself

[Celtics4ever]

Good for you but I would bet, Rondo, still gets better care and might have been in slighty better shape than you prior to the injury.   I could be wrong though but usually pro athletes are well conditioned.  It's a question of money, he is worth a lot to his franchise and we are civilians, I mean no offense.  I am glad you recovered and thanks for sharing your experience.

[rasta1]

Confidence in the knee does become an issue

Because often times it's injured on a movement you've done in the past...just that one time someething goes wrong so you fear you might injure yourself again...there's that fear that you'll hurt it again

When I play basketball now I don't tend to drive in as much as I used to just as a precautionary thing. Same with respect to most sports. I have no issue in the gym and whatnot. It's just the unexpected stuff that can occur in an ingame situation of sports