Connor McDavid Playing With His PCL Torn In Half

[Highmarker]

After these comments I feel sorry for Giordano. Shouldn't McDavid slow down to not put in the risk his own health and others? Hockey will be safier. This is one of the measures NHl can take, limit the speed on the ice, make players use speedometers and issue speed tickets to those who violates the traffic rule.

You joke but after the NHL deemed what Tkachuk did to Kassian a good clean hockey play I wouldn't put it past them.

 

[oobga]

Didn't you read the last extended tweet 2 pages back?

Surgery would've changed how he skated and potentially affect his speed, the process he took it said it naturally healed

So, his PCL is healed... I guess most people are going off the preview part where it suggests his PCL was completely severed. Wonder if that was an initial diagnosis that was found to not be totally accurate.

Guessing the takeaway that will come from this special is that McDavid had surgery and a long recovery that would have probably done irreparable damage to his speed on the table, or a grueling rehab schedule that ended up consuming his entire life for full days for many months where he had a chance to get back much closer to 100% if all went well, and he picked the latter.

 

[snag]

So, his PCL is healed... I guess most people are going off the preview part where it suggests his PCL was completely severed. Wonder if that was an initial diagnosis that was found to not be totally accurate.

Guessing the takeaway that will come from this special is that McDavid had surgery and a long recovery that would have probably done irreparable damage to his speed on the table, or a grueling rehab schedule that ended up consuming his entire life for full days for many months where he had a chance to get back much closer to 100% if all went well, and he picked the latter.

If I were him, I would play the odds too. A knee replacement in your 30s or 40s is better than likely throwing away your most valuable asset at 23.

 

[hitman9172]

Mentioned this on the Oilers board already: I completely tore my PCL (grade 3 tear) sliding into the boards during a beer league game in October and have seen several sports medicine doctors and orthopaedic surgeons to discuss options. The gist of what I’ve learned is this:

• PCL injuries are very rare because the ligament is twice as strong as the ACL, so it takes tremendous force to tear the PCL. The PCL is located in the back of the knee and PCL injuries happen when there's a massive impact to the front of a bent knee i.e., hitting your knee against the dashboard in a car accident, sliding into the boards, or having someone fall or roll into the front of your shin while running.
• Fully torn PCLs never heal completely on their own. If you don’t have surgery, you just live without your PCL.
• Whether you need surgery depends on whether other ligaments were damaged as well and how unstable your knee is. In my situation, the other ligaments and cartilage were OK, and my instability wasn’t too bad, so the doctors recommended I do rehab instead of surgery. I was told that as the knee only bends in one direction, the PCL only provides about 10% of the stability you need to walk/run, so you don't always need surgery. The ACL provides far more stability, so a torn ACL requires surgery basically immediately.
• PCL injury rehab involves a lot of quad and hip exercises. These muscles pull the shin bone (tibia) forward after a torn PCL causes the shin bone to sag backwards.
• The biggest risk with a torn PCL is it eventually might lead to arthritis (and eventual knee replacement surgery) because of stresses on the knee joints from different load-bearing. Higher risk of arthritis if you also had cartilage damage.
• PCL surgeries are risky and complicated as it involves going in through the back of the knee and most surgeons rarely do them. Even with surgery, it’s not entirely clear whether you’ll recover properly or avoid arthritis. After PCL surgery, it takes 9-12 months of intensive rehab to return to sports. Surgical replacement of a fully torn PCL involves taking ligament tissue from your own body (e.g., thigh) or a cadaver donor, cutting open the back of your knee and cutting away your torn PCL, and stitching in the new ligament to your bones. Surgery typically only takes you one grade “up” i.e., from a grade 2 tear (severe partial tear) to a grade 1 tear (minor partial tear with a feeling of “looseness” in the knee) or from a grade 3 to a grade 2 tear.
• The pain never really goes away, or at least it takes a long, long time (years). I still feel very sharp pains in the back of my knee during some lateral movements, and my entire knee goes numb for a while if I tweak it.

Rehab’s been pretty gruelling but for me the 2 most nerve-wracking things are: 1) will I ever be able to play hockey and basketball again without pain and 2) will I eventually get arthritis and need a knee replacement?

 

[danielpalfredsson]

McDavid tore WWF's the Mountie in half?

 

[Saltcreek]

I don't, but it was recommended by 3 different doctors until McDavid found one that would let him play the following season.

Nonsense. 4 million spent, they were not fishing for the answer they wanted, they were looking for the best advice. Just because a couple said surgery it does not mean that was correct. Going by how McDavid is playing it looks like they made the right call based off everything we know at the moment.

 

[Oddbob]

This seems like a good for the Oilers now, and terrible for Connor later on in life. Hope not, but that extensive of an issue doesn't seem like rehab is the best route!

 

[Sam Spade]

So, his PCL is healed... I guess most people are going off the preview part where it suggests his PCL was completely severed. Wonder if that was an initial diagnosis that was found to not be totally accurate.

Guessing the takeaway that will come from this special is that McDavid had surgery and a long recovery that would have probably done irreparable damage to his speed on the table, or a grueling rehab schedule that ended up consuming his entire life for full days for many months where he had a chance to get back much closer to 100% if all went well, and he picked the latter.

Exactly.

My takeaway from reading the Rishaug tweet is he is fine and all of this is just getting info out there about what he went through.

So it is a news story but nothing relevant to McDavid today as he is playing at 100%.

 

[McFlyingV]

Just because you aren't a doctor doesn't mean you cant read medical studies such as those that were registered with the National Institute of Health (NIH U.S. Government) or any other public record.

For example:

Long-term results of posterior cruciate ligament tear with or without reconstruction: A nationwide, population-based cohort study

- from Oct 2018



Conclusion

In the present study, we found that patients with PCL tears have a significantly higher risk of meniscus tear, arthritis and TKR than matched peers without PCL tears. Patients who had undergone PCL reconstruction had a decreased incidence of meniscus tear, OA (Osteoarthritis) and TKR (Total Knee Replacement) surgery compared with patients who were treated conservatively. We further observed that patients who underwent reconstruction within 1 year after PCL injury experienced a significant protective effect against these poor prognoses. The results of this study can provide a baseline of expectations for the future development of meniscal injury and arthritis following PCL injury with and without PCL reconstruction.

That article is also level 3 evidence which is certainly not great quality. Even more so when you compare the population of that study to a top notch elite athlete. Poor evidence quality and poor comparison population sure doesn't make me put much stock into that study.

 

[tenken00]

That article is also level 3 evidence which is certainly not great quality. Even more so when you compare the population of that study to a top notch elite athlete. Poor evidence quality and poor comparison population sure doesn't make me put much stock into that study.

Level 3 just means it's a cohort study. This isn't a randomization study for a patient controlled treatment or anything.

It's an observational study that relies on looking at procedural records over the years. So you deal with documents and records instead of patients. That's all level 3 means. Not that the data is unreliable. More like an overall over time review.

 

[ncm7772]

Not trying to take anything away from McDavid, but PCL tears that occur in isolation (even complete tears) are very rarely operated on. This is because PCL tears in isolation rarely cause significant instability. Complete opposite of ACL tears.

 

[Coffey]

McDavid tore WWF's the Mountie in half?

(But you actually mean PCO who wasn't the Mountie cause it was Jacques Rougeau.)

 

[Dekes For Days]

The state of the Oilers? They'd be a basement team without him.

Yeah, that's kind of the point.

They're not winning anything this year anyway, so why risk the future of your franchise for a few million in potential playoff revenue?

 

[GOilers88]

Yeah, that's kind of the point.

They're not winning anything this year anyway, so why risk the future of your franchise for a few million in potential playoff revenue?

I'm pretty sure the final decision was McDavid's and I highly doubt the biggest motivating factor for him was to help generate some potential playoff revenue.

 

[tony d]

Heard about this. Again it's his choice to come back and judging his play this year it really didn't hurt him long term. I think it's something he'll have to monitor but overall not something that will impact him long term.

 

[JT Kreider]

Yeah, that's kind of the point.

They're not winning anything this year anyway, so why risk the future of your franchise for a few million in potential playoff revenue?

It had nothing to do with that. An ultra competitive guy like McDavid is going to do whatever it takes (pun intended) to avoid missing a full season. Its just in his nature. Playoff revenue was the last thing that was taken into account when he made the decision to forego the surgery.

 

[KlefDown]

what are the chances he used HGH in his recovery?

 

[Voight]

I'm pretty sure the final decision was McDavid's and I highly doubt the biggest motivating factor for him was to help generate some potential playoff revenue.

Ultimately its the teams choice no? He's an employee and they can argue him making the injury worse would hurt them financially. They are investing millions in him alone.

But I suppose nobody can really force you to have surgery.

 

[McDNicks17]

what are the chances he used HGH in his recovery?

Definitely deer antler spray.

 

[ThePhoenixx]

Shame a dog **** dman that can’t accept the fact he’s slower than 90% of guys in the league almost ruined the best player in the world.

Then they rewarded him with the Norris.

 

[KlefDown]

Definitely deer antler spray.

im calling the police

 

[danielpalfredsson]

(But you actually mean PCO who wasn't the Mountie cause it was Jacques Rougeau.)

I got my 90's french Canadian wrestlers mixed up.

 

[Coffey]

I got my 90's french Canadian wrestlers mixed up.

Easy mistake to make.

PCO was the pirate.

 

[JD1]

Mentioned this on the Oilers board already: I completely tore my PCL (grade 3 tear) sliding into the boards during a beer league game in October and have seen several sports medicine doctors and orthopaedic surgeons to discuss options. The gist of what I’ve learned is this:

• PCL injuries are very rare because the ligament is twice as strong as the ACL, so it takes tremendous force to tear the PCL. The PCL is located in the back of the knee and PCL injuries happen when there's a massive impact to the front of a bent knee i.e., hitting your knee against the dashboard in a car accident, sliding into the boards, or having someone fall or roll into the front of your shin while running.
• Fully torn PCLs never heal completely on their own. If you don’t have surgery, you just live without your PCL.
• Whether you need surgery depends on whether other ligaments were damaged as well and how unstable your knee is. In my situation, the other ligaments and cartilage were OK, and my instability wasn’t too bad, so the doctors recommended I do rehab instead of surgery. I was told that as the knee only bends in one direction, the PCL only provides about 10% of the stability you need to walk/run, so you don't always need surgery. The ACL provides far more stability, so a torn ACL requires surgery basically immediately.
• PCL injury rehab involves a lot of quad and hip exercises. These muscles pull the shin bone (tibia) forward after a torn PCL causes the shin bone to sag backwards.
• The biggest risk with a torn PCL is it eventually might lead to arthritis (and eventual knee replacement surgery) because of stresses on the knee joints from different load-bearing. Higher risk of arthritis if you also had cartilage damage.
• PCL surgeries are risky and complicated as it involves going in through the back of the knee and most surgeons rarely do them. Even with surgery, it’s not entirely clear whether you’ll recover properly or avoid arthritis. After PCL surgery, it takes 9-12 months of intensive rehab to return to sports. Surgical replacement of a fully torn PCL involves taking ligament tissue from your own body (e.g., thigh) or a cadaver donor, cutting open the back of your knee and cutting away your torn PCL, and stitching in the new ligament to your bones. Surgery typically only takes you one grade “up” i.e., from a grade 2 tear (severe partial tear) to a grade 1 tear (minor partial tear with a feeling of “looseness” in the knee) or from a grade 3 to a grade 2 tear.
• The pain never really goes away, or at least it takes a long, long time (years). I still feel very sharp pains in the back of my knee during some lateral movements, and my entire knee goes numb for a while if I tweak it.

Rehab’s been pretty gruelling but for me the 2 most nerve-wracking things are: 1) will I ever be able to play hockey and basketball again without pain and 2) will I eventually get arthritis and need a knee replacement?

Well dude...cheer up...i had a partially torn PCL, ACL and a crack in my tibia. Hockey related. No surgery. 6 months solid rehab. Custom made don joy brace. The good news is that ive been playing beer league a few times a week for 7 years now since that injury and the knee feels fine. I also downhill ski with the brace on. The bad news is i wont ever step on a court again. I wouldn't be comfortable without the brace on and I'd be afraid of it blowing apart without it.

 

[hitman9172]

Well dude...cheer up...i had a partially torn PCL, ACL and a crack in my tibia. Hockey related. No surgery. 6 months solid rehab. Custom made don joy brace. The good news is that ive been playing beer league a few times a week for 7 years now since that injury and the knee feels fine. I also downhill ski with the brace on. The bad news is i wont ever step on a court again. I wouldn't be comfortable without the brace on and I'd be afraid of it blowing apart without it.

That's good to hear. Regarding the knee brace, did you end up buying a recovery knee brace like the Ossur Rebound brace that actually pushes the tibia forward in order to speed up healing? One of the surgeons recommended I buy the Rebound brace to play sports, but the brace is super bulky, used for post-operative recovery, and basically can't be used for sports, so the brace specialists at Ossur were wondering why I would need the Rebound brace since (1) I didn't have surgery so the brace won't allow my PCL to heal and (2) the Rebound brace is too bulky for sports. The brace specialist said I might want the smaller brace that's used for protection and support during sports, but it won't do anything for me recovery-wise. It's a pretty big investment, so I was wondering if it's worth getting either brace.