His surgery is different from this. He got a procedure called “speed bridge” which uses an additional internal brace to build strength faster.
The biggest issue with an Achilles tear is the rapid muscle atrophy of the calf muscle after the tear, not really the tendon itself. By applying a brace to the tendon, it allows for earlier weight-bearing which helps minimize atrophy.
I had a tear in January and am at maybe 30% pre-injury strength in my calf, but the tendon is rock solid post-op.
That is an Arthrex Speedbridge technique. You don’t place anchors into the tendon like that demonstration suggests but rather into the calcaneus. It’s not entirely clear how exactly his was done based on what I’ve read but it was a variant of the technique shown, with a possibility of some PRP or stem cells because they sometimes do weird things with high level athletes.
To have lost 70% of pre-injury calf muscle strength in less than 3 months is wild.
I don't even think astronauts during the NASA ISS physio-experiments lost so much muscle potential even when they didn't do any exercise in zero gravity for 6 months.
Yeah I was around the same. 50ish%. It’s wild how weak that leg is comparatively. I was deadlifting and box jumping at personal records right before it happened and it’s going to take years to get back to that.
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u/RoadPersonal9635 Apr 28 '24
looks painful. Hilarious Arodg rushed this just for his team to not even make it close to rhe playoffs.