ACL Tear, reluctance to operate

[uglyfatboy]

hi mate,
there was a big article published in KNEE journal this year showing the risks of not having your acl repaired. im sorry i dont have a link! previous thinking was that you could rehab the muscle strength and get similar outcomes as the repair. this has been shown not to be true and without a repair the long term effects are not nice: massively increased risk of meniscal damage (cartilage), long term instability and increased risk of osteoarthritis.
id push for the repair mate and in the meantime keep it nice and strong as it will improve post surgery recovery!

oh and yes atheletes have gone the rehab route before with minimal success! roy keane a big example, tried to strengthen but knee failed again and ended up in surgery! you can get away without a repair if u are going to give up all pivoting sport! doesnt sound like you!

[physiofixme]

One of the big questions to ask when deciding about repair vs non-repair is what you are intending on doing with regard to sport/activity. If your aim is to be able to return to football then you may wish to look seriously at the surgical option. My reason for saying this is that football is a high risk sport considering the amount of pivoting etc involved. Playing a high risk sport on an unstable knee increases the risk of re-injury.

Doing strengthening now in preparation for surgery is vital. It is in effect "prehabilitation" or in other words, the first stage in your rehab.....it just starts before you have the surgery. The stronger your knee is going in to the surgery, the better your recovery will be. Your strengthening does need to be specific however to give you the best chance! A physio should be able to point you in the right direction regarding the exercises you should (and equally importatntly shouldn't) be doing!