Juju Watkins tore her anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) just before the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament. Rolling out spoke to Andrew Adams, a former athlete who played in the NFL for eight seasons, about what it will take for her to bounce back. Adams’ father is also a sports doctor, so the younger Adams has special insights when it comes to athletes’ recovery because he has seen and experienced both sides. He took some time to join the Health IQ and break down exactly what Juju Watkins is facing on her road to recovery.
Exactly what Juju Watkins should expect
Can you kind of break down what an ACL injury is, ACL tear and why it impacts athletes so drastically?
It definitely provides the stability to the knee, right? So, without ACL, then negatively wobbling, right? No power. So, that’s really the main thing. And then as far as coming back from it, you know, the strengthening the quads, you know, probably some of the main things that you need to do, strengthening, you know, the calves and the ankles, all of the joints around the knee, you know, to make them as strong as possible, to provide support for the knee. So, yeah, those are some of the main keys. I would say,
How long is the average recovery time for a full ACL tear, especially for an elite athlete like Watkins?
You’re looking at a good nine months to a year, you know more on the more on the year side. Yeah, some people come back on the nine-month side. But that’s kind of a rare, a rare situation it’s more, you see more people on the on the year side.
Why isn’t an ACL injury considered a death sentence anymore like it used to be back in the day?
You know, there’s always advancement improvements of technology and science and different methods of rehabbing and going about these procedures. So, yes, it has advanced, I would say medicine. Health care has advanced from 20 years ago. And so there is a lot more modalities that you can do post-surgery, right? A lot of the things are the same. The methods are the same. It’s just, you know, just how you know, how they’re implemented.
What are two things Juju Watkins needs to know for this journey she’s about to embark on?
One, it’s not easy. But you know anything worth achieving or overcoming isn’t going to be easy. And two, she’ll have the ability, even though she suffered this deficit, she’ll have the ability to be better than she was before because of her mental capacity and what she’s gone through. It would just make her a better player if she attacks this the right way.
