ijohnb

December 17th, 2012 at 10:00 AM ^

dress again in a couple of weeks but I don't think you will see him play meaningful minutes anymore.  It is a tough conclusion to come to, but I think that Horford needs to start worrying about the condition of his legs for like, life, as opposed to basketball.  I cannot shake the feeling that everytime he plays he is still in pain and that he has suffered to many leg injuries to continue to put a stress his legs like he needs to to play.  He is likely overcompensating with other portions of his legs and body to play through pain and with that you risk serious injury.  He could help this team a lot but I think he needs to help himself at this point.

In reply to by ijohnb

jmblue

December 17th, 2012 at 1:00 PM ^

Are you in the medical field or is this just some kind of gut feeling?

I'm not a doctor, but a friend of mine is and stated that this kind of injury, while painful in the short-term, does not necessarily produce long-term repercussions if allowed time to heal.  Apparently, the injury usually can heal without surgery.

 

Mannix

December 16th, 2012 at 2:52 PM ^

Doesn't care about knee braces. The chain effect of a weak VMO muscle is the root of all that is bad around the knee. For those not familiar with it, it is the muscle above the knee and toward the medial side and when you flex or tighten your quads, it is the little bulge just above the patella.



Son had it happen this yr in football and put him on the shelf for last four games. He's just now ready for hoops. His VMO muscles are weak and he's 6'4" and has some serious work to do!

RakeFight

December 16th, 2012 at 11:41 AM ^

"Dislocated" would be a more accurate term.  I can't find it easily, but there's a physical therapisst who posts on this blog and has his own blog with a recent post about patellar dislocation.  

andrewG

December 16th, 2012 at 12:23 PM ^

I'm not positive this applies for knees as well, but for shoulders, it's typically only a full dislocation if it requires a doctor/trainer/someone else to pop it back into place. If it goes back in on its own, it's usually not a complete dislocation and is called a subluxation. I have more experience with these terms than I'd like to.

Steve in PA

December 16th, 2012 at 1:47 PM ^

Dislocated/subluxed shoulder ended my baseball career.  PT's at the time said strengthening the rotator cuff muscles would help, but as I aged and muscles weakened I would have problems since ligaments don't recover from being stretched.  Told me I was done pitching.

That was 20 years ago and trying to play in college proved them correct.  I hope that there have been enough advances and knees are different enough that Mr Horford can continue to play the game he loves at a high level with rest and healing.

 

Wolverine In Exile

December 16th, 2012 at 6:42 PM ^

baseball gets as being not a physically demanding sport, the human body isn't built to do a lot of the basic movements/skills in baseball: pitching, catching, visually tracking a 100 mph spheroid 60 ft away from you and coordinating your entire body's muscle movements to attempt to contact it, etc.

Pitching injury stopped my first attempt at a baseball career (elbow damage), and then I switched to catcher and wrecked my knees.

trueblueintexas

December 16th, 2012 at 8:59 PM ^

One of the big differences between shoulders and knees is the "rotator cuff", a thin rim of cartilage which helps keep the ball of the arm in the loose shoulder socket. Most full dislocations also involve damaging this cartilage. That is why it is so likely to happen again. Knee caps don't have this issue. It is all about the ligament and tendon.

El Fuego

December 16th, 2012 at 11:59 AM ^

I got chop blocked and my kneecap popped out.  When I hit the ground, it popped back into place.  It hurt like hell, but I only missed 2 practices and played the next week.  Hopefully Jon will be back in a week.

LSAClassOf2000

December 16th, 2012 at 12:28 PM ^

...but Horford seems like a fighter and hopefully he is back soon from this. He is a valuable contributor and, if nothing else, he will have the holidays to recover. We only have Eastern and Central Michigan before the end of the year, and Bielfeldt should fill in ably for those games, as well as a couple low-stress conference game at the beginning of January. Hopefully, he's good to go for the game in Columbus. 

bronxblue

December 16th, 2012 at 1:35 PM ^

Sad to hear, but luckily the team has depth so they'll be able to weather the storm.  To have a kneecap pop in and out, though, sounds incredibly painful.

MGomaha

December 16th, 2012 at 1:45 PM ^

Not trying to sound like a hardass and I do not know the extent of his injury but I'm just being optomistic, but this happened to me in a game this fall. I sat out the following week because it was a cupcake team but I was back in two weeks. He should be back soon, I hope. 

YtownBlue

December 16th, 2012 at 2:46 PM ^

I believe this is the same injury he had before the season that kept him out the first few games. I've read he could be gone until the start of B1G season

BoiseBlue

December 16th, 2012 at 10:56 PM ^

The potentially concerning thing about this injury is that with it being a repeat occurrence the likelihood of him doing this again goes up.

He almost certainly has torn the Medial PatelloFemoral ligament, which is the primary restraint to the knee dislocating outward. If this problem persists a reconstruction may be neccesary which would be a very lengthly recovery(potentially longer than an ACL).

Let's hope Jon and the training staff continue to work hard and he's back on the court soon

ajchien

December 17th, 2012 at 2:08 PM ^

The medical term for separated kneecap is:

Lateral patellar dislocation.

And if it pops back into place by itself,

Transient lateral patellar dislocation.

Yeah, the medial patellofemoral ligament/medial retinaculum is at least partially injured. Partial muscle tears of the vastus medialis are also commonly associated. There can also be articular cartilage injury, but let's hope not.

It's not rare, rather pretty darn common. Looks like he was wearing a pretty hefty brace to try to prevent it from happening too.