Hoops Morgan injury - pessimistic?

His surgery is tomorrow so hopefully all goes well. His mom posts on other boards sometimes and she said not to count him out for this year so I don't think it is a worst case injury. Hopefully he'll be practicing with the team by November. I think either McLimans or Morgan was going to redshirt this year anyway if Cronin is effective. McLimans was a five year guy since he went to prep school so I think he's about a year and half older than Jordan. Reports from the team camp are that McLimans gained a little weight and looks like he might be able to provide some minutes this year. Unless Jordan heals quick and just tears it up in practice, he will probably redshirt since we have enough big men. We'll need him next year when Sims and Gibson are gone.

I'm having flashbacks of Cory Zirbel's knee all over again. I know he had a cartilage problem (although I believe it was interior), but that kinda stuff has always concerned me. Hopefully he fully recovers and comes back to contribute in our Back to back to back to back to back championship runs.

I didn't know that cartilage was the issue here. My experience as a massage therapist has been that once cartilage goes, it becomes a chronic problem, because cartilage doesn't grow very quickly and the stress of being on one's feet has a tendency to deteriorate it faster than it grows. Since he is young, and is having microfracture surgery, he has a decent chance of recovery, but it seems like most people who lose hyaline cartilage just end up having "osteoarthritis" in varying degrees for the rest of their lives. I wish this kid well, but I wish they were working on his ACL; IMO, he would have a better chance of a full recovery. My guess (I know I am not a doctor and don't have inside info, but this is a somewhat educated guess based on what I have seen in other people and what I have taught in pathology classes) is that he will recover enough to play, but will always have to pay a lot higher price to get out on the floor than other players will. I hope he makes it through four years of college and I really hope he goes to classes and gets his degree. Here is what wiki has to say about cartilage replacement: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knee_cartilage_replacement_therapy

I am a doctor, though not an orthopod. I also had knee surgery to repair cartilage damage 12 years ago. I don't think the poster above said he is having microfracture surgery. I haven't heard that, just that he is having surgery. It depends on what is actually damaged. For me, it was a medial meniscus tear that was easily repaired and I have been heavily (although not d1 athlete level) active in athletics continually since my injury with no signs of any problem since then. I was running on my knee 6 weeks after surgery and was participating in sports within 3 months. His timetable to return based on rivals was four months. That puts him coming back in early Nov. If he can get his conditioning back, he might contribute this year. Again, this all depends on what was damaged and how bad the damage is.