Monday, November 11, 2024, 9:43 p.m.
Rip. Ligament. Crossed. These three words are probably the worst any athlete can hear. The same ones that Éder Militao heard after leaving a Bernabéu in tears that was left speechless on Saturday when he saw how the Brazilian center back broke his right knee after the same thing happened to him in August 2023 with his left. The downtime for these mishaps is usually no less than nine months. «There is between a 12 and 15% chance of suffering a rupture of the anterior cruciate ligament in both knees successively. “Relapse is clearly conditioned by your genetics,” Dr. Pedro Ripoll, a specialist in Orthopedic Surgery and Traumatology, told this newspaper.
The bleeding of crusaders that has shaken Europe’s five major leagues in recent months, where up to 46 players are out due to this serious injury, according to data from the Transfermarkt website, hit Spanish football hard last weekend. . The aforementioned Madrid player was joined on the extensive list by Villarreal winger Ilias Akhomach and Leganés defender Enric Franquesa. «There is an exponential increase in serious knee injuries. It has gone from an average of 7.6 cruciate breaks per season to 11 per course. For example, in the entire calendar year of 2021 there were four, in 2023 there were 17 and so far in 2024 we count up to 11,” indicates the expert.
They all point to the same culprit: the saturation of parties. Approximately, if the injury time is added, footballers from teams that play in European competitions only have one alternative and that is to adapt to a season that can reach 72 games. «The sum of minutes that can accumulate throughout the course is a danger to the player’s health. It is reckless for big teams to play up to 300 minutes a week. That time must be distributed among the squad, which is why FIFA increased the number of changes in matches to dose the effort, not to use them as a strategy in many cases,” says Dr. Ripoll.
Real Madrid has seen five cruciate fractures in the first team in the last 15 months
General problem
«The demands of the calendar do not allow the players to rest just enough. They arrive at games a little more tired, less fresh than normal and then the risk is higher. It is a general problem, not just for us,” said Carlo Ancelotti, Real Madrid coach, after seeing how against Osasuna he lost three players due to injury and suffered his fifth cruciate tear in the last 15 months. «We are all doing something wrong. We are playing with people’s physical integrity. You have to reflect. What is happening is not normal,” Borja Jiménez, Leganés coach, showed with concern.
What is the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL)?
He LCA It is one of the four main ligaments that stabilize the knee
posterior cruciate ligament
medial collateral ligament
Lateral collateral ligament
Its main function is to prevent the tibia from moving forward with respect to the femur, thus maintaining the stability of the knee.
ACL injuries are usually caused by the result of several mechanisms:
Most ACL injuries result from excessive rotation of the knee while the foot is fixed on the ground. For example, when the foot is fixed on the ground and the body rotates rapidly (external torsion of the tibia).
A change of direction while running, jumping or making other movements common in sports.
When the knee extends beyond its normal range of motion.
In some cases, an ACL injury can be the result of a direct impact to the knee, such as a blow or collision.
What is the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL)?
He LCA It is one of the four main ligaments that stabilize the knee
posterior cruciate ligament
medial collateral ligament
Lateral collateral ligament
Its main function is to prevent the tibia from moving forward with respect to the femur, thus maintaining the stability of the knee.
ACL injuries are usually caused by the result of several mechanisms:
Most ACL injuries result from excessive rotation of the knee while the foot is fixed on the ground. For example, when the foot is fixed on the ground and the body rotates rapidly (external torsion of the tibia).
A change of direction while running, jumping or making other movements common in sports.
When the knee extends beyond its normal range of motion.
In some cases, an ACL injury can be the result of a direct impact to the knee, such as a blow or collision.
What is the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL)?
He LCA It is one of the four main ligaments that stabilize the knee
posterior cruciate ligament
medial collateral ligament
Lateral collateral ligament
Its main function is to prevent the tibia from moving forward with respect to the femur, thus maintaining the stability of the knee.
ACL injuries are usually caused by the result of several mechanisms:
Most ACL injuries result from excessive rotation of the knee while the foot is fixed on the ground. For example, when the foot is fixed on the ground and the body rotates rapidly (external torsion of the tibia).
A change of direction while running, jumping or making other movements common in sports.
When the knee extends beyond its normal range of motion.
In some cases, an ACL injury can be the result of a direct impact to the knee, such as a blow or collision.
What is the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL)?
He LCA It is one of the four main ligaments that stabilize the knee
posterior cruciate ligament
medial collateral ligament
Lateral collateral ligament
Its main function is to prevent the tibia from moving forward with respect to the femur, thus maintaining the stability of the knee.
ACL injuries are usually caused by the result of several mechanisms:
Most ACL injuries result from excessive rotation of the knee while the foot is fixed on the ground. For example, when the foot is fixed on the ground and the body rotates rapidly (external torsion of the tibia).
A change of direction while running, jumping or making other movements common in sports.
When the knee extends beyond its normal range of motion.
In some cases, an ACL injury can be the result of a direct impact to the knee, such as a blow or collision.
“In the European leagues as a whole, last year injuries due to cruciate tears were 30%,” says Alfonso del Corral, head of Real Madrid’s medical services from 1994 to 2009. There are now nine footballers in the League. who have been affected so far this season by a torn cruciate ligament, after Hamari Traoré (Real Sociedad), Thierry Correia (Valencia), Borja Garcés (Atlético), Marc Bernal (Barcelona), David Alaba and Dani Carvajal (Real Madrid) have had the same thing happen to them. Without forgetting Joan Martínez and César Palacios, two of the most promising young people in the Madrid youth academy. All of them have said goodbye to the season when only a third of it has been completed.
«Those players who have a more static position have less risk, those who play more facing the goal and have less need to make violent turns. In positions in which the footballer is subject to situations, for example, attackers, wingers or full-backs, the risk increases,” Ripoll differentiates.
Proprioception and surfaces
«Technically we are talking about loss of the protective effect of training, as well as the lack of individualized protection training for footballers based on their injury history. Proprioception training, for example, exerts a protective effect on the footballer against injuries, which is lost in the rush of a preseason that has almost disappeared. For example, if you do a jump to finish, when you land it does not automatically think how to do it, and this is also trained. The physique and the brain. For Dr. Ripoll there is another basic point, and it is “the state of the playing fields, the height of the grass, as well as its humidity.” “The federation has to approve the surfaces on which it is played,” he claims.
«Not everything can be money and marketing, the important thing is the quality of the show. We need to rest. “We players are about to go on strike,” threatened Rodri Hernández, Manchester City’s Ballon d’Or winner, before breaking his cruciate at the end of September, an ailment that women footballers suffer nine times more than men. A study by the Cugat Institute of the Quirón Salud Barcelona Hospital, based on data from the Catalan delegation of the Footballers’ Mutuality between 2015 and 2021, determines that female players injure the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) between 1.5 and three times more than men. One in every 100 female soccer players suffers an injury of this type during their career. The ratio for men remains at one in 300.
