Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) Reconstruction: Informed decision making

Recovery and rehabilitation expectation

You may have heard that recovering from an ACL reconstruction operation takes 9 to 12 months. However, this is not entirely the case! Research shows that time alone will not help you return to your sport/ activity.

A better way to look at it is to accept it takes 9 to 12 months of GOOD rehabilitation to return to sport, depending on the level of the sport. Some sports are tougher on the knee than others, pivoting sports are likely to take a bit longer to get back to.  

My favourite analogy is to suppose that you have a smartphone with a software fault, meaning the phone does not work. You  reset the phone and then reinstall the software. While it will switch on, the phone will not work properly without the software reinstallation.

In this analogy, the surgery is the reset, and the rehabilitation is the software reinstallation needed for the knee to work as a stable joint.

What will I need for my rehabilitation?

·      Patience

·      Motivation

·      A gym membership 

·      Supervision from an experienced physiotherapist/ athletic trainer

Your recovery will involve extensive rehabilitation with progressive difficulty for 12 months — it is this long, because it takes this long!

Although it’s long, remember why your considering going down this road — you love your sport this much! This is always worth coming back to when times get tough — and they will get tough.

This might be the S&C coach in me shining through, but you will need gym access to complete your rehabilitation. Home exercises don’t cut it.  You will do a half job without the correct exercises require equipment and weights.

So you have an expert in your corner and you have the equipment at the ready. But, we haven’t touched on the most important part — YOU!  You need to do a 12-month rehabilitation plan and join the gym (if your not already a member). These are proper lifestyle changes; if you’re not sure I would urge you to reconsider until you are.  

Will I return to sport?

An ACL reconstruction gives you an opportunity, NOT a guarantee, of getting back to sport. The surgery stops your knee giving way.  That’s not enough to get you back to sprinting, jumping, shooting hoops, smashing balls and setting your sport alight! For that, you need to put in hard graft.

Research shows that before the surgery, 9/10 falsely believe they do have that guarantee that they will return to their previous level of sport/ activity. I write this post to make sure everyone makes an informed consent to the process.  If you’re not sure of this and you sign up then it’s under false pretenses.

Be reassured that around 8/10 people get back to sport, but only 4/10 return to their previous level of sport. The silver lining is these people recieve standard care in national health services which do not have the same level of expertise as specialist physios/ S&C coaches.  When we look at people who do, those numbers are much higher!

It’s helpful to remember though that there is always risk of another ligament or meniscal injury, with the opposite leg being more at risk. The research shows this is typically due to no or a shorter rehabilitation than recommended — the risk sits at around 20% at two year follow up.

Rehabilitation of the ACL is constantly improving, and these numbers are way higher in people who are experienced in sport rehab or even better Strength and contioning.

Book a free consultation and we can talk about what it might look like to get you back to sport!