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Richard Stockton
College Athletic Training
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| We would like to make special note that Brad's return with an ACL injury before surgery is a unique situation. He is the first athlete in my 10 years here that we have allowed to return to play after this type of injury. We want to be sure other athletes realize this is the exception rather than the norm for ACL injury management. |
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Brad
is a Senior midfielder and four year member of the lacrosse team.
During practice on Monday 2/26/01 Brad was making a cut when he
felt a "pop" and his knee give out. It was a non-contact
injury. Brad was diagnosed with a complete ACL tear of his right
knee. The MRI revealed there was no other meniscal or ligament damage
associated with the injury. Brad is a graduating senior and wanted
to return to play before surgery. After a consultation with Dr.
Steve Zabinski on 3/5/01, where all the potential risks were explained
to Brad, we decided to give him that opportunity. He would have
two more weeks of rehab to go through and need a custom functional
knee brace. Brad came in 5 days per week during this period. His
rehab focused on returning his Active Range of Motion to normal,
proprioception, and quad and hamstring strengthening. His program
emphasized hamstring 
work.
Brad's knee actually looked pretty good from the start. And we didn't
have much work to regain his normal ROM. He began jogging on 3/9/01.
We added plyometrics to his program (with his brace) on 3/13/01.
During this last week we also added on agility work. On 3/20/01
Brad passed an aggressive functional test that involved cutting,
sprinting, jumping, stopping/ starting and sport specific skills
and was cleared to return. Initially we had him play attack where
less running is involved. Brad played in about 1/2 of his first
game back. He played in the entire game against Montclair University
(game 2), where he also scored a goal. Brad continued his rehab
with us 3 days per week for the remainder of the 
season.
In one four game stretch he scored 7 goals and had 6 assists. He
went through the remainder of the season with no significant swelling
or incident involving his knee. He played in 8 games for the lacrosse
team contributing 20 points (11 goals and 9 assists). Brad made
a significant contribution to his team that earned an ECAC Playoff
entry. He had ACL surgery by his own orthopedist in North Jersey.
He completed his rehab at a physical therapy clinic near his home
town.