Walter Thurmond's Recovery
by John Morgan on Jun 1, 2010 3:45 PM PDT
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PrintLet me preface this by saying I have no specific qualifications. Further, I don't know of anyone that can accurately predict recovery from an injury like the one Walter Thurmond suffered. He tore his ACL, MCL and PCL. And though I have not read any specific reports to confirm or even imply this, traumatic knee injuries like Thurmond's sometimes involve cartilage damage as well. The severity of the injury and his position's reliance on cutting and change of direction are working against Thurmond.
Here's what I think is in his favor.
Age: Thurmond is only 22 and anecdotally, age seems to be a boon for recovery from any and all injury.
Time: Deion Branch tore his ACL January 12 of 2007. He attempted a comeback in week five, but then missed the next five weeks in part because of a bruised heel. He returned again in week 11 and finished out the season playing close to full strength. Week 11 was about 11 months from the original injury. Thurmond suffered his injury on September 26. He won't be 11 months removed until the end of August, but should he mimic Branch's timetable, that's about as good as one can expect. He will be mostly healthy for practice and the pre-season and hopefully fully healthy for the regular season.
Hard work and progress: Maybe it's just a fan thing, but I find this sequence of videos heartening.
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This is an interesting post
My Fiancee is a Doctor and she said that this is a catastrophic injury (not that you need to be a DR. to know that) and that recovery will take a very long time. And I do believe that he will start the season on the PUP, but everything that I have seen with regard to his injury is that there was no cartilage damage, and having torn my own Interior meniscus, I can tell you that it doesn’t ever actually heal but that isn’t the case with MCL, PCL, ACL injuries. Now having all three of them at once will and should force him to slowly recover and where we don’t need him to perform right away with Trufant, Wilson, and Jennings we can afford to let Walter take as much time as is needed. This is one of the few cost to benefit ratio pick ups that I absolutely loved this off season. Very good write up and nice job adding the videos they make me feel much better also.
by Sean Michael Patrick Gallegos on Jun 1, 2010 4:32 PM PDT reply actions
Is it?
Didn’t Caddy tear the patellar tendon? That’s in the front of the knee, holding the kneecap (patella) in place (attached to the lower leg). I believe he tore it in both his knees over one year, which is what makes his comeback so impressive.
Thurmond tore his posterior cruciate ligament, anterior cruciate ligament and and medial cruciate ligament. Basically every ligament holding his knee together except the lateral.
by Thomas Beekers on Jun 1, 2010 4:50 PM PDT up reply actions
With no medical schooling, PUP is as good a guess as any.
And who knows at what speed he returns at? In other words, I’m more curious in seeing him next year than this. And that’s ok.
My brother-in-law tore his MCL, PCL and meniscus in one injury.
He was 21. He’s not a pro football player, so it’s hard to know the differential in the comparable, but he was a cornerback in high school and had 4.48 speed.
He didn’t get it fixed for almost 8 months. Went in and was told he was effed for life, was devastated, I told him not to accept that and got him a referral to the clinic of the Sonics’ old team doctor, in Bellevue. Much more encouraging. Got the microfracture, used a hamstring, the whole thing went well.
9 months and regimented rehab ended. More like 16 months + before it was truly truly back to normal, though. But truly back to normal. No lingering effects. Not an athlete, but a fit guy. Amateur rehab prolly isn’t the same as a pro football player. Demands on the damaged ligs much lighter, too of course.
Anyway, his experience doesn’t help much with timetables, but it’s pretty encouraging to me WRT the viability of coming back from an injury like that at all. Tearing multiple structures is a more severe injury, but doesn’t necessarily constitute more severity of damage than individually tearing them.
"Oregon-Cal: Walter Thurmond's knee injury doesn't appear serious"
I was searching for the date of injury (sept 26 2009) and found this very … ‘optimistic’ article which speculates its ‘not serious… not an ACL’
http://blog.oregonlive.com/behindducksbeat/2009/09/oregon-cal_thurmonds_injury.html
Because he walked away from it with a slight limp.
You can even see it on video of the play.
Great post
That last video (Week 10) was from just before Christmas— wonder what he’s looking like now?
This was my favorite pick in the draft after Okung. Thurmond will start for us for years.
inside of a dog it's too dark to read.
WOW!
Nike has hooked Oregon up. Thats a pretty impressive facility.
Haves and Have-nots
What I most got from those rehab videos was the HUGE disparity in the off-field support assets between D1 schools with deep financial backer pockets and those without.
How is Georgia State going to compete with schools that have resources like those of UO seen in the video?
Tell me about it
I’m a WSU Coug and we and UO are both in the PAC 10 but as for facilities? Yeah WSU is more like Idaho State by comparison…
by Sean Michael Patrick Gallegos on Jun 1, 2010 5:58 PM PDT up reply actions
Didn't Itula Mili completely blow up his knee and sit his entire first season
Dang, Itula Mili. I hadn’t thought of that dude in a long time before reading this post.
"Those who fear disorder more than injustice inevitably produce more of both." -- Rev. William Coffin
The bits he injured are a lot like the words "car accident".
Strictly speaking, a 5 mph parking lot fender bender is classified as an accident the same as a 120 mph end-over-end rollover.
Looking at the film, the injuries were mild, but numerous. Completely shredded knees do not allow for that kind of activity 6 weeks after a full reconstruction. Looks to me like more NFL groupthink, panic at investing a pick in someone who injured 3 ligaments. Mildly. Ready for training camp is very realistic.
This is a significant injury
He couldn’t run at his pro-day a few weeks before the draft. He is still sitting on the sidelines watching OTAs. His injury occurred in September. Any injury that keeps you out of football for that long is considered significant. That is the reason why he dropped to the 4th round. He wasn’t a 4th round draft pick because of skills or attitude, it was purely due to his knee. There is a bit of risk or teams wouldn’t have hesitated taking him in the 2nd or 3rd round, as what his talent warranted.
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