Anfernee Jennings was injured in the semi-final game of the college football playoff. He recently took to twitter to say he will be missing the game. He underwent surgery on his right knee. Prior to the MRI, Nick Saban expressed that he believed Anfernee Jennings initially sprained his knee.
But if you see the video below, it appears that the knee sprain is much more than a knee sprain.
The real question is how much damaged occurred. Is it just the ACL? Or is there MCL and Medial meniscus involvement?
Anatomy Review:
Let’s review 3 potential injuries he could have suffered.
Anterior Cruciate Ligament – connects the femur to the tibia and prevents anterior translation of the femur in relation to the tibia.
Medial Collateral Ligament – connects the femur to the tibia and prevents excessive valgus (inward) force on the knee.
Medial Meniscus – acting as shock and force absorber between the femur and tibia. It also assists in reducing friction between the two bones allowing them to move smoothly.
What I Could Do?
For the time being with his injury “unknown” after assessing his knee, since it is also post-surgical, the first few treatments will work on reducing inflammation and swelling in the knee and restoring passive range of motion in his knee. So we’re talking passive flexion and passive extension. So for that we’ll do manual. We’ll work the hamstrings, quadriceps, adductors, and hip external and internal rotators.
As the pain reduces, swelling reduces, and passive range of motion increases; we’ll move towards non weight-bearing active range of motion. And believe it or not, not just at the knee but the hip and ankle. The knee takes on a lot of the stresses from the movement of the hips and ankles. So we’ll want to make sure as he rehabs he doesn’t develop poor movement habits from his hips and ankles.
He’ll start with very basic movements at the ankle and at the hip. He’ll do ankle pumps and ABCs for the ankles. He’ll do hip flexion, hip extension, hip abduction, and hip adduction at the hip. But eventually we’ll need to progress him into weight-bearing active range of motion and more dynamic active range of motion.
Regardless, my role in the initial few months of care will be very limited to working on the soft tissue of the hips, thighs, and knee to help with range of motion, reduce pain, and swelling. He’ll working extensively in with the physical therapists to correctly strengthen associated muscles.
My Take:
If it is an ACL, he’ll miss 9-12 months which will likely put him most of the 2018 season. If it was a meniscus tear, 3 months on the short end 5/6 months on the longer side. Lastly, if it was an MCL tear, potentially 2 months at the most. He did require surgery, but it still unknown what the surgery was.
So it’s tough to say what’s going to happen. It has been reported he will still have an MRI after the surgery to determine if there is other damage. This is one the cases unless you know a bit more information it’s tough to have thoughts on it. He’ll either miss part of the season or all the season.
But as for the National Championship Game. Roll Tide.
