Mark Wimer
Moderator
I've been writing the early Monday Injury report for Footballguys.com during most of the last decade, and I've literally seen thousands of injuries/surgeries etc and reported on the outcome(s) of these situations for that length of time. I also track offseason/training camp injuries on this board and have been doing so for the past five years or so. I've had many, many conversations/chats with medical doctors, sports therapists and others with medical expertise (including board members and our own Footballguy Dr. Jene Bramel), and have read extensively online and in medical journals/scientific publications regarding the various sorts of sports injuries that can be inflicted on players and the likely prognosis for a wide variety of injuries. How's that? While I am NOT a doctor, nurse, or therapist, I am a well-informed individual who has studied these issues for a long period of time.
Anyways, right now we don't have enough information, in my opinion, to state a definitive time-frame for Moreno's injury. However, there is enough information for informed speculation.
IF he has seriously torn the hamstring, then he would be out for a significant portion of the season, and if he tries to come back too soon, he could aggravate the injury. Hamstring injuries are notorious for developing into nagging/repeat complaints. Randy Moss, for example, suffered a hamstring injury during week 6 of 2004 while with the Vikings, which bothered him for several weeks that season, and his hamstring problems continued to plague him during his single year in Oakland during 2005.
Obviously, if the MRI shows a torn right ACL, his season is over for 2010.
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If he takes a snap in August I'll be shocked.
I am an athletic trainer, but only knowing what can be expected in a basic hamstring rehab protocol is totally different since every person's rehab is different in one form or another. Even the slightest pull is a tear in the muscle. When we see tear we think of a rupture. Tears in the muscle belly of the hamstring do heal faster than tears in the tendon because of the mass number of fibers in the muscle of an athlete compared to the tendon. The blood flow in the area, the number of fibers involved and swelling control are other factors involved in the estimated time of recovery. These are all things the media can not know unless they see the MRI and know what they are looking at. Generally speaking a well conditioned athlete has more muscle fibers, so a larger strain may not have the same % of muscle fibers involved in the muscle compared to your average Joe. Because there was a audible pop, we are probably looking at at least a grade 2 I would have to only assume. The progression of rehab will be to control swelling, monitor tenderness and strength levels, observe the gait progressing from walking to running again, gain good strength compared to the other leg then when he is about 90% or so, start testing his deceleration to a stop with cutting since the hamstring is the body's decelerator. If pushed to hard to come back the injury can linger because this muscle certainly will not be as strong as it was previously. I think the key is to know when he starts jogging on the sideline or how much strength he lost or when he starts strengthening up the muscle once again to get a better indication of the time he may miss. If he starts to cut and is hesitant, he is just not ready to be back out on the field.
I am an athletic trainer, but only knowing what can be expected in a basic hamstring rehab protocol is totally different since every person's rehab is different in one form or another. Even the slightest pull is a tear in the muscle. When we see tear we think of a rupture. Tears in the muscle belly of the hamstring do heal faster than tears in the tendon because of the mass number of fibers in the muscle of an athlete compared to the tendon. The blood flow in the area, the number of fibers involved and swelling control are other factors involved in the estimated time of recovery. These are all things the media can not know unless they see the MRI and know what they are looking at. Generally speaking a well conditioned athlete has more muscle fibers, so a larger strain may not have the same % of muscle fibers involved in the muscle compared to your average Joe. Because there was a audible pop, we are probably looking at at least a grade 2 I would have to only assume. The progression of rehab will be to control swelling, monitor tenderness and strength levels, observe the gait progressing from walking to running again, gain good strength compared to the other leg then when he is about 90% or so, start testing his deceleration to a stop with cutting since the hamstring is the body's decelerator. If pushed to hard to come back the injury can linger because this muscle certainly will not be as strong as it was previously. I think the key is to know when he starts jogging on the sideline or how much strength he lost or when he starts strengthening up the muscle once again to get a better indication of the time he may miss. If he starts to cut and is hesitant, he is just not ready to be back out on the field.
I am an athletic trainer, but only knowing what can be expected in a basic hamstring rehab protocol is totally different since every person's rehab is different in one form or another. Even the slightest pull is a tear in the muscle. When we see tear we think of a rupture. Tears in the muscle belly of the hamstring do heal faster than tears in the tendon because of the mass number of fibers in the muscle of an athlete compared to the tendon. The blood flow in the area, the number of fibers involved and swelling control are other factors involved in the estimated time of recovery. These are all things the media can not know unless they see the MRI and know what they are looking at. Generally speaking a well conditioned athlete has more muscle fibers, so a larger strain may not have the same % of muscle fibers involved in the muscle compared to your average Joe. Because there was a audible pop, we are probably looking at at least a grade 2 I would have to only assume. The progression of rehab will be to control swelling, monitor tenderness and strength levels, observe the gait progressing from walking to running again, gain good strength compared to the other leg then when he is about 90% or so, start testing his deceleration to a stop with cutting since the hamstring is the body's decelerator. If pushed to hard to come back the injury can linger because this muscle certainly will not be as strong as it was previously. I think the key is to know when he starts jogging on the sideline or how much strength he lost or when he starts strengthening up the muscle once again to get a better indication of the time he may miss. If he starts to cut and is hesitant, he is just not ready to be back out on the field.
