Hi ItsmeJPaulC,

It would be easy to be scared of putting load through your knee knowing about the tear, I can definitely see that.

I'm inclined to agree with your physiotherapist. I think if you are feeling good symptom-wise during activities, I think that is a good sign. A popular saying in the physio community is "treat the patient, not the scan". The body is pretty miraculous at adapting and coping very well to deficits in structure and the MRI alone really doesn't give the full picture. There have been lots of studies in recent times where they have put lots of people without any symptoms through MRIs and they have shown some pretty horrendous tears and degeneration ect on the picture, but the person has experienced no symptoms at all! That doesn't mean the scan is completely useless, but it shouldn't be taken in isolation.

At the end of the day, I think you should do what you enjoy. If that was my knee and it was coping well during rehab and progression of activities, i.e symptom free, no swelling, no clicking or locking of the knee ect, I would keep going. It is probably sensible to do it under the guidance of your physio to check in on things, make sure youre coping well and have a good strengthening/balance/plyometric preventative kind of program to continue on down the track. It's also important that your rehab has been/is progressive and gradually working you up to the demands of football and you dont jump the gun. Maybe when you return your knee isnt coping (mentioned above are some of the potential signs) and you have to modify activities accordingly, but its tricky to estimate how it would go just from theory. If you are super keen on returning I think its definitely worth a try given adequate preparation and confirmation with your physio.

Strength is a huge protective factor when it comes to knee health and prevention of arthritis symptoms, and avoiding all "unnecessary" activity in the long term I think would be hugely detrimental. And on running and knee health, studies have shown that not only does running not cause degeneration of the knee, but it may even be a protective factor for diseases such as arthritis. Regardless of whether you return to football or not, I think you should definitely be doing a comprehensive strength and neuromuscular based rehab program, as it is a sizeable tear.

Good luck with it! Keep us updated.