Real Madrid suffered a huge blow as they were entering the 2023-24 season with one of their key footballers Thibaut Courtois getting ruled out of significant portion of the season suffering a anterior cruciate ligament injury during training. He had to undergo a surgery and will need time in the sidelines for rehab with no guarantee of returning to the pitch in the same shape. That was not all, during Real Madrid's first match against Athletic Club Brazilian defender Eder Militao suffered a similar fate, leaving the field in tears. Scans revealed another anterior cruciate ligament injury and similar time in the sidelines before a possible return. Before it could be processed, another injury was reported. This time from Arsenal about their newly signed defender Jurrien Timber, who also had an ACL injury. Fans perplexed about the reason of so many ACL injuries this early into the season looked for answers finding none. In this article we will look into the possible reason which is causing so many ACL injuries just at the start of the season. Thibaut Courtois to Undergo Surgery Due to Anterior Cruciate Ligament Injury, Set to Be Sidelined For Several Months.
ACL injuries occur when an athlete has a bad landing and puts too much force on the ligament trying to change directions quickly. In most cases it is considered as am injury, caused due to sustaining sudden trauma in the ligament, sometimes due to heavy impact. But research suggests that there has been cases where the ligaments are progressively weakened by microdamage accumulated during each submaximal loading cycle before it can be repaired. That means, the ligament has been exposed to high intensity activity over a long time with very little recovery time. This indicates at the current schedule of the footballers which is extremely tight and cramped. Jurien Timber Suffers Anterior Cruciate Ligament Injury, Arsenal Defender Set to Undergo Surgery.
The current football calendar has very little break for footballers, Several professionals, including Kevin de Bruyne, Toni Kroos and Thibaut Courtois has been vocal about the schedule being extremely tight and giving less and less recovery time to the footballers. With the pre-season tours having an commercial purpose, even those are played with the first choice playing XI and with high intensity. Considering the International fixtures slipped in the club football breaks in the last two years, the damages taken by the muscles and ligaments of the footballers have barely recovered and it has caused the ligaments to tear after sustaining minimal load just at the start of the season.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Aug 23, 2023 09:20 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).