ACL Injuries

What is an ACL injury?

ACL stands for anterior cruciate ligament.  The anterior cruciate ligament is one of the four major knee ligaments that help connect the femur, the tibia, and the patella. The other ligaments are called the medial collateral ligament (MCL), the lateral collateral ligament (LCL), and the posterior cruciate ligament (PCL).  The LCL is on the outside of the knee and the MCL is on the inside of the knee.  The ACL and the PCL cross each other to form an “X” inside of your knee with the PCL in the back and the ACL in the front.  When the ACL tears, it splits into two and sometimes involves injury to knee cartilage and the other ligaments.1  When the ACL is torn there will be a popping sound and the knee will swell within  six hours of the injury.2  Anybody that is somewhat familiar with the world of sports has seen or heard of someone tearing their ACL.  It is an injury that can occur in just about any sport, but is most prevalent in football, basketball, and soccer; when watching NFL football this year, it seemed that just about every week a star player went down with a torn ACL.  ACL tears mainly happen when an athlete changes direction, stops suddenly, lands from a jump incorrectly, or receives direct contact or collision to the knee.1  

Not a Career Ender

Because of the vast improvements to modern medicine, ACL tears are no longer seen as a career threatening injury.  We have seen many professional athletes come back from ACL injuries and play as if nothing happened to them at all, one prime example of that is Adrian Peterson.  Adrian Peterson is an NFL running back who tore his ACL and MCL in 2011 then in 2012 went on to rush for over 2105 yards falling just nine yards short of the NFL’s all time single season rushing record.3  Because Peterson won the NFL MVP award that year he took a lot of attention away from another star NFL player by the name of Jamal Charles.  Jamaal Charles who also tore his ACL in 2011 came back and 2012 and earned a spot on the NFL All-Pro team after rushing for 1509 yards.4   Peterson and Charles, along with many other professional, college, high school, and even younger athletes that have torn their ACL’s have shown the ability to be just as good if not better at their sport when they return to their sport after injury and that trend will hopefully continue to rise.

1 Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) Injuries-OrthoInfo - AAOS. (n.d.). Retrieved January 31, 2016, from http://orthoinfo.aaos.org/topic.cfm?topic=a00549

2 Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury: MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia. (n.d.). Retrieved January 31, 2016, from https://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/001074.htm

3 Minnesota Vikings. (n.d.). Retrieved January 31, 2016, from http://www.nfl.com/player/adrianpeterson/2507164/careerstats

4Kansas City Chiefs. (n.d.). Retrieved January 31, 2016, from http://www.nfl.com/player/jamaalcharles/925/careerstats