When sophomore guard James Blackmon Jr. went down with an injury to his right knee at the end of December, there was a lot of uncertainty about how severe his injury was.
About a week later, it was announced he would be having surgery to repair the damage. A few hours after that, Blackmon Jr. was ruled out for the rest of the season. It was never specified what type of knee injury Blackmon Jr. suffered.
He did suffer a torn meniscus last offseason however, to his left knee.
That process is a unpredictable, Amy Bayliss said, a clinical professor in the physical therapy department at IU-Purde University Indianapolis.
“It can be kind of hard to narrow down because technology in surgical procedures have changed so much,” Bayliss said. “It used to be they just removed the meniscus whereas now they generally don’t remove the whole structure anymore. They might take part of it or take none of it out and try to repair it. Sometimes they’ll even do replacement.”
Bayliss has been teaching for the past nine years, and practicing for the past 24.
She said meniscus and ACL tears are more common in contact sports, and while basketball is a non-contact sport, contact is still prevalent.
“Sports that have some type of contact you’re going to up the ante a little but,” Bayliss said. “Contact, twisting and pivoting are hard on the ACL and meniscus.”
But IU said the injury occurred during a non-contact drill in practice.
The rehab process can for a meniscus tear or for an ACL tear can take anywhere between six to 12 months, Bayliss said.
There are typically six stages to any rehabilitation for a knee injury. The first begins before the surgery, Bayliss said, making sure the knee is ready and the quadricep is strong enough for the surgery.
Then begins the second phase, which is just the first week after surgery, Bayliss said. All that usually happens in this phase is an attempt to reduce the swelling and the pain after the surgery.
The third phase, from weeks two to four after the surgery, Bayliss said, involves trying to apply full weight on the knee and trying to get back to walking normally and strengthening the knee.
The fourth phase, from weeks four to 10 after the surgery, is primarily focused on improving the strength and endurance of the knee, Bayliss said. This phase is also based around an activity where the patient stands on only his injured leg for a set amount of time.
Bayliss said the fifth phase takes place from weeks 10-15, and is essentially a more intense version of the fourth phase. It is based aggressive strengthening of the knee and the introduction of drills specific to the patient’s sport.
The final phase is a bit more flexible, Bayliss said. It usually lasts around four months and doesn’t involve the introduction of any new drills. By this time, the patient should be able to return to practice, but is still not participating is any contact drills or full games.
By six months in, the patient should be healthy enough to participate fully in practice and games. By 12 months, the patient should be back to normal.
“With proper rehab, six months return to sport with no restrictions,” Bayliss said. “I would say with speed and agility, and being 100 percent fighting form is about 12 months.”
Trying to get back to pre-injury status is the goal. Knee rehabilitation is unlike other rehab processes, like when baseball pitchers repair their elbows.
In those cases, the injury and surgery can actually improve the pitcher’s arm from where it was before. But this is because it is a different type of injury, Bayliss said.
When a pitcher requires Tommy John surgery, it is because his arm has been slowly debilitating for years.
“It takes a long time for the elbow to give out,” Bayliss said. “Some people start developing pain as early as 10 years old, but maybe it’s mild. With degenerative injuries I think people sometimes forget what feels normal so after surgery they feel better.”
Bayliss said knee injuries are much more sudden and happen all at once.
Bayliss also made sure to point out the dangers still associated with the patient’s knee after full recovery. Re-injury is much more common, meaning for Blackmon Jr., both of his knees are at greater risk of serious injury than they were at this point last year.
“We like to think in the rehab world that at 12 months we have you back to your pre-injury status,” Bayliss said. “The problem is that tissue never repairs quite the same.”
