This season, we here at HerLoyalSons are pleased to present a new feature, Injury Time with Doc Griggs. Well, we’re not pleased about injuries, but you get the general idea. Doc Griggs, no stranger to HerLoyalSons, is a 1992 graduate of the University of Notre Dame, where he played, as a walk-on, for Lou Holtz. A graduate of Tulane University’s School of Medicine, Doc Griggs is at the center of a multi-media empire of wellness and public health, literally pounding the streets with his message to “Get Healthy, Get Fit, and Get Moving!”
Throughout the year, when major medical news breaks, Doc Griggs is going to provide you, the loyal reader, with his explanation of the injury and what it may mean to the player. Doc Griggs has no doctor-patient relationship with any of the players mentioned in this series.
credit: UND.com
This injury was bad news for Jarron Jones and bad news for the Irish. The knee is an amazing and elegant machine. When it works, we forget we have two of them. When something goes wrong, we realize just how much we need them. But thanks to the state of orthopedic medicine today and the phenomenal care our athletes receive, there may be more to the “season long” nature of Jarron’s injury than meets the eye.
The knee is a joint and is surrounded by a capsule with ligaments strapping the inside and outside of the joint, the MCL and LCL. These are the “collateral ligaments.” It also contains straps that “cross” in the middle of the knee joint. These are the cruciate ligaments; the often-mentioned ACL, MCL, and PCL. These ligaments combine to provide multi-directional strength and stability to the knee. The medial collateral ligament (MCL) is the stabilizing strap on the inner side of the knee joint and prevents the knee from buckling inward.
The knee is powered by the thigh muscles. The quadriceps muscle, in the front of the leg, extends the knee joint forward, while the hamstring muscle flexes the knee back. The knee can also rotate slightly under specific restraints of the muscles and ligaments.
Because the knee is a system of elements that all work together, compromise of one puts incredible stress on the other elements, placing them at sudden and significant risk of injury themselves. A torn MCL, Jarron’s specific injury, allows the knee to buckle inward and puts the other structures, especially the anterior cruciate ligament, at risk.
A torn MCL is treated based on the severity of the injury. Medicine has assigned a grading system to MCL injuries with three grades: one, two, and three. Grade one is characterized by no loss of integrity and is treated with rest and physical therapy. Under normal circumstances, a grade one MCL injury will keep an athlete out for about a week.
A grade two injury is characterized by a partial tear of the ligament. Far more serious, it is nevertheless normally treated non-operatively. The athlete is fitted with a brace and can return to the field in about four to six weeks.
Jarron’s injury is believed to be a grade three, or complete, tear of the ligament. Even more serious, under most circumstances, a complete MCL tear is still mostly treated conservatively, with the athlete braced for six to eight weeks. Of course, there are special circumstances where you would treat a grade three tear surgically, such as when associated structures are injured simultaneously or if the torn ligament is significantly out of place.
So, after hearing about the injury to Jarron Jones, I consulted Dr. Christopher Marrero, a close friend and orthopedic surgeon, why Jarron would be undergoing surgery so quickly given the nature of his injury. His answer said more about Jarron’s possible future ambitions than the severity of the knee injury.
“Without surgery, Jones could return to the field in November. With surgery, he’s out for the season. However, that gives him an entire offseason and one more on the field to compete for a spot in the NFL draft, with no lingering medical issues. While medicine has yet to invent a magic wand, the state of orthopedic surgery is such that his repair should restore him to full strength, permitting him to get evaluated by the pro scouts based on his talent and not on a medial misconception.”
Hating Hurricanes Since 1990.
Bayou Irish is a Jersey boy and Double Domer who fell under New Orleans' spell in 1995. He's been through Katrina and fourteen years in the Coast Guard, so we cut him some slack, mostly in the form of HLS-subsidized sazeracs. But, when he's not face down on the bar and communing with the ghosts of Faulkner and Capote at the Carousel Bar in the Hotel Monteleone, he's our man in SEC-land, doing his best to convince everyone around him that Graduation Success Rate is a better indicator of success than the number of MNC's won in the last five years.
- Finding Flaws in a Diamond: Clemson’s Rushing Offense - December 17, 2018
- Why Nobody Will Cotton to Notre Dame - December 3, 2018
- Irish Finish Regular Season Perfect 12-0 - November 26, 2018
