Dear shep96,

thanks for the update. I'm very sorry to hear that there were more structures involved than what I thought. I now learnt that delayed swelling does not rule out a bigger injury and I'll certainly keep that in mind for the future. You did not mention any tackle or twist, only that you ran with the ball? Best early advice I can give before the ACL reconstruction is to try to move it and exercise it within your limits. The better you are physically before the operation, the faster you'll recover post-op. What I consider as the most important variable pre-op is to achieve full extension of the knee. A physio can help you towards this (presuming you are not able to completely stretch out the knee already).