Achilles Rupture - the end of your sporting career?

Intro - Engaging, polarising and pushes emotions toward doom, with the light at the end of the tunnel. (add length of reading time)

Though the evidence is that 32% (NFL) (Parekh et al 2009) and 39% (NBA)(Amin et al 2013) of players never returned to the professional level, you can have hope that within the past 10 years, achilles rehab, has made a large surge in their success rate.

If we take a look at NBA stars Klay Thompson and Kevin Durant (KD), it is clear that it is POSSIBLE to get back to your sport and play at a high level. Especially with Klay suffering an ACL injury the year before and then during practice rupturing his achilles. Or even more memorably known, when KD made an attempt to crossover, planting his right foot, an immediately dropping to the ground in the game 5 NBA finals of 2019 against the Toronto Raptors.

You may be thinking that these stars have all the money and experts and therefore cannot be you.

Body:

Helpful tips to work on in early stage (either operative or non-operative)

• Find a team of experts to help get you through this journey

  • The team may include: physio, trusted general practitioner (GP), Foot/Ankle specialist, sports doctor, exercise physiologist, your coach, skills coach and/or S&C coach.

As a physio, here are some key guidelines to know you’ve got the right health-practitioner

• Find a physiotherapist that can prescribe you exercises that work on all your unaffected areas

• It helps if they know your sport

• Make sure there is a goal in mind for you and your physio to work towards

• Find a physio that listens and understands not only your physical limitations but also your psychological limitations (having an acute traumatic injury can induce fear and anxiety of similar movements)

Conclusion:

Hopefully by now, you should feel reassured, knowing that there is a plan of action, there are health professionals that can help you along with this journey. Though it may take up to 12-24 months to return to full performance, this info will help spring-board you.