The story behind Tom Liberatore’s remarkable recovery to play in 2016 AFL premiership for the Bulldogs

This article is 2 months old. Sorry if this is a double post.

Heads off to our medical department and our trainers :) The article didn't mention about VUT but I think we struck gold with the partnership and benefit a lot from the their research in Sport Science.

http://cdn.newsapi.com.au/image/v1/5...71e1?width=700

The story behind Tom Liberatore’s remarkable recovery to play in 2016 AFL premiership for the Bulldogs
Jake Niall @jakeniallfox, FOX SPORTS



WHEN the Western Bulldogs journeyed to Geelong for the Round 19 Friday night game, they lost the match, two of their best players and seemingly any hope of grasping the grail.

Tom Liberatore and Jackson Macrae suffered serious ankle and hamstring injuries and, given all the other casualties and likelihood that they wouldn’t make top four, the Dogs appeared to have reached a tipping point, or to have finally toppled over.

Liberatore, who had been best afield in the first quarter and a half, went down with syndesmosis, the same ankle injury that ended Carlton skipper Marc Murphy’s season from Round 12. Macrae had torn his hamstring tendon — an injury which often means an absence of two months.

But, it was at this point — probably the season nadir for the Dogs — on July 29 that the club rolled the dice. In the car trip back, on the Geelong Road, the club medicos Dr Gary Zimmerman and Dr Jake Landsberger devised a plan to have Libba and Macrae fit for the finals.

On the way home, the doctors contacted the club’s surgeon David Young and, after a conversation, decided that Liberatore would undergo an unusual, seldom-used operation on his ankle in an attempt to fast track his return.

To hasten Liberatore’s recovery, Young would insert a piece of rope, or surgical string, into the ankle. The rope would hold the two bones in the ankle — the tibia and fibula — together, allowing the ligaments and membranes to heal.

http://cdn.newsapi.com.au/image/v1/a...e2e4?width=700

Libba’s ankle — and his finals campaign — literally was held together by a piece of string.

The surgery was completed on the day after Liberatore’s injury, on the Saturday. No time would be wasted.

The operation and recovery program — brilliantly assisted by club’s physios — saw Liberatore return for the elimination final in Perth, while Macrae’s comeback was simply a case of strong rehab work and a calculated gamble that the young midfielder would recover in time.

Liberatore and Macrae would be crucial players in the Dogs’ month of miracles. Acting skipper Easton Wood and Dale Morris, too, had issues prior to the finals. Morris had fractured two vertebrae in his back against the Dockers in the final round, but, in a symbol of the Bulldogs’ defiant season, refused to be grounded.

Wood had an ankle injury that required heavy strapping and made it difficult for him to leap. The hanger he took in the preliminary final against the Giants was a rare instance of the athletic defender really taking flight during the finals.

http://cdn.newsapi.com.au/image/v1/f...ef2b?width=700

While there has been much made of the pre-finals bye and of the benefits the Dogs received before the trip west to play West Coast, the plan had been for Liberatore, Macrae, Wood and Morris all to play finals, Wood having been grounded late in the season.

In the course of the finals, the fitness of Liberatore and Macrae improved; rather than struggling with their ailments, they were on the mend.

Morris played on, in the knowledge that the broken vertebrae ‘’wouldn’t get worse’’,as he told Channel Seven. ‘’It’s a pain management thing and we go for it.’’

Those with a knowledge of the club’s past would recall that LIberatore’s storied father Tony returned from a conventional knee reconstruction — which typically means missing 9-12 months — after only 16 weeks in 1999. If his son has a different — and greater — tool kit, he clearly has some of his father’s recuperative powers.

On numerous occasions this year, the Dogs’ season seemed to hang by a thread. In Liberatore and Macrae’s cases, both an inserted string and a healing hamstring hung together for that amazing month.

Libba went through an amazing amount in 2016, especially given it was also first year back after a major knee. Typically, players improve substantially 2nd year back. Really excited to see what he can bring this year.

I remember when the VU partnership going through and wondering how much money a Uni could cough up? But what they provide goes way past money. You probably couldn't buy what we get from tham.