Depth: Durant’s Achilles tendon recovery reveals three factors to save KD’s career_Rehabilitation

Original Title: Depth: Durant Healing Achilles Tendon Reveals Three Factors to Save KD’s Career

Since the beginning of the season, the Brooklyn Nets have become the team that makes the most news in the league, and in the Nets, Kevin Durant’s performance has far exceeded people’s expectations.

A set of data shows that in 17 games before the season, Durant averaged 30.8 points, 7.5 rebounds and 5.2 assists per game, and his shooting percentage was 53.3%. Such a powerful output is definitely not enough to describe it as excellent. In fact, this set of data has far exceeded KD’s career average, and even comparable to the only regular season MVP season in KD’s career.

But who could have imagined how pessimistic the outside world was when Durant injured his Achilles tendon for the second time in the finals two years ago, and when he was diagnosed with Achilles tendon rupture and forced to undergo surgery.

On the one hand, in NBA history, very few players have recovered from a major Achilles tendon injury. On the other hand, Durant is over 30. For a basketball player, having this catastrophe in his first year is tantamount to a devastating blow to his career.

The Achilles tendon, as the toughest tendon in the human body, is about 15cm long, but it is this “component” of a short ten centimeters that plays an important role in transmitting the strength of the calf muscles to the foot. A person can stand upright and stand firm. , Can run, can jump, can not do without the Achilles tendon. For basketball players who make a living by running and jumping, the role of the Achilles tendon is naturally unnecessary.

In the past ten years, most players often succeeded in surgery after Achilles tendon rupture, but successful surgery is only the first step in the long march, and the long road to recovery is the most tormenting and difficult to deal with. process.

Medical experts have given a complete Achilles tendon rehabilitation program, which includes more than 30 specific links. Previously, it took almost a year for most NBA players to recover from Achilles tendon injuries. Specific to the recent cases. Active Lakers player Wesley Matthews took 222 days to come back, Kobe took 240 days, and DeMarcus Cousins ​​returned even more than a year…

Of course, the so-called rehabilitation is only on the physical level, and most players tend to suffer greatly from injury after Achilles tendon injury. In the 1990s, “Smiling Assassin” Thomas and Patrick Ewing superstars were knocked down by Achilles tendon injuries one after another, and never returned to their peaks. In the 2000s, smash hits like Billups and Elton Brand were also possessed by the spell of “Achilles’ Heel” and retired one after another.

The most familiar example is Kobe Bryant. In the 2012-13 season, for a playoff ticket, Kobe “fighted in blood” in a game between the Lakers and the Warriors, but due to years of expedition and overwork, the Achilles tendon was completely broken. Before the injury, Kobe was still averaging 27.3 points, the league’s top 5 super scorer, but after the injury, his combat effectiveness plummeted, and finally bid farewell to the basketball court three years later.

The only one who returned to the top after a ruptured Achilles tendon was Dominic Wilkins. In the first season after injury, the “Essence of Human Movies” still averaged 29.9 points and 7 rebounds per game. After that, Wilkins contributed another 26 points per game season, but on the offensive explosion. Strength, on the defensive end of dominance, even if the physical fitness is as strong as Wilkins, it is difficult to maintain for long.

Therefore, when Durant ruptured his Achilles tendon and fell two years ago, most people’s pessimistic expectations for him were naturally understandable.

But after the start of the season, KD’s performance shocked the entire basketball world. On the court, KD can still play beautiful numbers, and there is no sense of frustration between moves. In certain regular periods, KD occasionally uses water strokes to save energy. But once the most important moment of the game, he is still the fearsome “Reaper”. He doesn’t worry about his playing time, and even on some nights with extra time, he can go faster than 40 minutes. .

Therefore, many people can’t help asking, what is the panacea for KD to heal from Achilles tendon rupture? Looking back at KD’s recovery process over the past year, there are indeed many interesting clues hidden in it.

First of all, as a right-handed player, the habitual axis foot is often the left foot. Therefore, the Achilles tendon of the left foot is more strenuous, more prone to injury, and more difficult to recover. Kobe, Brand, Billups and others were unfortunately left-footed, and thus started the down period of their careers. But fortunately, KD’s injury was on his right foot, which is the same as Wilkins back then.

Secondly, Durant at the beginning of his career often placed great emphasis on jumping height in his signature jumpers. However, starting in 2014, KD gradually revised his posture and deliberately lowered his jump height. During the Warriors period, KD added more off-ball starting routines to the skill pack, reducing the frequency of dribbling and changing directions. Both of these points made his style of play more low-energy and further extended his His sports life span has minimized his impact after the injury.

Of course, the biggest credit for Durant’s recovery comes from his medical and rehabilitation team. According to information received by some insiders, this KD operation and rehabilitation process adopted the most advanced technology and concepts.

In routine operations, although the stump of the Achilles tendon can be sutured with a firm suture, it does not mean that the broken Achilles tendon will heal. Earlier, sutures had fatigue fractures, and cases of operation failures had also occurred. But this time, KD uses brand new suture technology and suture materials, which greatly reduces the possibility of thread breakage and avoids the risk of recurrence of injury during the initial recovery period. In addition, in the latest rehabilitation program, KD’s medical team appropriately shortened the time for wearing protective boots. This also avoided the obvious muscle atrophy of KD injuries. All of these helped KD’s subsequent long recovery period. Good foundation.

What’s more fortunate is that Durant’s injury outbreak is not an isolated case. The Rockets’ Wall has also recovered from the same type of serious injury to the present season, and also responded to doubts with solid data on the court.

However, at this stage, the team is still closely monitoring Durant and other players and is still giving the green light to their rotations at any time based on the density of the schedule. In addition, the season only played less than one-third, whether the Achilles tendon injury is really defeated, I am afraid that more data support is needed, and a longer wait and see is needed. (Poirot)Return to Sohu to see more

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