ACLs: Bad luck or something else?

[jeemak]

Didn't look like a knee in the first incident.

Watch a replay of it.

[bornadog]

Watch a replay of it.

I won't be watching one second of this game.

From where we were sitting couldn't tell.

[bulldogtragic]

Watch a replay of it.

I know you're hurting too, but wishing one of us to ever watch a replay of any of tonight is just cruel!

[kruder]

When Redpath was testing the injury on the sideline he kept saying to the trainer/doc "its farkd" prior to going back on.

[bulldogtragic]

When Redpath was testing the injury on the sideline he kept saying to the trainer/doc "its farkd" prior to going back on.

Then things re going to get very, very, very messy.

[bornadog]

When Redpath was testing the injury on the sideline he kept saying to the trainer/doc "its farkd" prior to going back on.

Were you at the boundary line, or did someone tell you? (just interested)

[Sedat]

For the life of me I don't understand how any player can be brought back on after tearing an ACL. Having done an ACL myself, there is simply no ability to twist and turn, which is kind of important in a 360 degree game like footy. Then again I didn't study medicine at uni for 8 years.

[The Bulldogs Bite]

Medicos should be investigated if true. Second time in 12 months.

[1eyedog]

Bringing a player on complaining of a shot knee contradicts the conservatism we've taken with injuries as a club this year.

[G-Mo77]

Medicos should be investigated if true. Second time in 12 months.

Absolutely. IF it is true then I'd stand them down. This will be hard to come back for Jack.

[Sedat]

Red's twisting motion when his knee collapsed in the last qtr looks and smells an awful lot like a knee with an already snapped ACL. I know that feeling of collapsing at the knee from twisting all too well, and I really feel for Red if he was brought back on with question marks around the knee. I was not convinced by our medico's statement after Clay did his last year and I'm skeptical about any rationale for doing the same thing to Red this time.

[Webby]

Red's twisting motion when his knee collapsed in the last qtr looks and smells an awful lot like a knee with an already snapped ACL. I know that feeling of collapsing at the knee from twisting all too well, and I really feel for Red if he was brought back on with question marks around the knee. I was not convinced by our medico's statement after Clay did his last year and I'm skeptical about any rationale for doing the same thing to Red this time.

Not saying it's a pleasant thought, but if it's gone, it's gone. Might as well get back out there and see. You can't do it twice... I realise that sounds slightly barbaric, but it's the reality.

[Sedat]

Not saying it's a pleasant thought, but if it's gone, it's gone. Might as well get back out there and see. You can't do it twice... I realise that sounds slightly barbaric, but it's the reality.

With no support mechanism of an ACL to stabilise the knee joint during twisting and turning motions, you can quite easily tear additional cartilage in the knee - cartilage of course doesn't grow back once torn so you end up with bone on bone later in your career/life. Bone on bone aint fun let me tell you.

If Red was brought on to help with rotations using the argument that no further damage can be done, that is not good enough IMO. I was critical of this line of thinking with Clay last year and I would be just as critical this time around.

[bulldogtragic]

Do we need to start thinking how risk management now of our list now? I think the stat is once an ACL is done there's a 60% recurrence risk which increases after subsequent ACLs. Bob (2), Redpath (3), C. Smith (3), R. Smith (1), Libba (1) & Prudden (1) have all had their most recent ACL in the last 15 months. The high likelihood of recurrence means we have a lot of risk on the list that players may be out for long periods again. I'm starting to think this could be a big issue. For me Roarke doesn't get elevated and we can see him next year with Wally & Redders on the LTI list. Prudden just has to go all together, for mine too. This presents a big test of medico's and list management working together to sort it out.

[FrediKanoute]

When I hurt my knee, they ran all of he tests and concluded no ACL tear - diagnosed as a lateral strain with cartilage damage.

25 years later, spent skiing, playing cricket, more footy (though never as good), tennis, 5 a side football etc, knee trouble meant that I had an MRI and low and behold no ACL - I had torn it a long time ago. They are sometimes not that easy to diagnose. I saw a top Melbourne surgeon and his advice was "you may have torn it, but you may not have. We could do an arthroscopy, but that's invasive and we don't do surgery unless we have to. Go out, play footy and do it properly". One of the reasons why my injury was hard to diagnose was the muscle bulk around the knee - it effectively compensated for the lack of an ACL.

The doc's know what they are doing. If they sent him back on they figured it either couldn't get much worse, or they didn't think it was torn. We don't know as all we have is anecdotal reports off the TV and a fan forum. When Redders returned to the field the game was still on - his being on the field and making it through could have been the difference as it would have allowed an extra rotation.