3 things every football manager should know about ACL rehab

Get your players back to playing.

I am currently rehabilitating three football players who have injured their Anterior Cruciate Ligaments (ACLs). All of them have been out of football for at least 6 months and have been left to rehabilitate on their own with me. The difference in how soon they will return to play is not down to their effort; it is down to how soon their manager addressed their injury.

If you are a football manager who wants your key players back as soon as possible (and for them not to get re-injured), then here are three simple things you should know.

1. Prevention is better than cure: None of the three players I am helping did any injury prevention work. They simply played football. Simple strength exercises can be included in your warm-ups or as active recovery between technical/tactical drills. Also, someone has to manage the amount of playing/training time young players have: no matter how fit someone is, if they are doing the load of a first-team player and an academy player, they will get injured. It will not be down to bad luck, but down to bad planning.

2. Start the rehab immediately: Don’t wait for the surgery. As long as the player is pain-free, then the rehab should start before surgery. There are three main reasons for this.

• The outcomes from surgery are related to how strong the player is going into surgery. Strengthening the quadriceps and hips is essential.

• The non-injured leg needs to work too! If you stop training until after surgery, both legs will get weaker. This is one reason why many players injury their ‘good’ leg after ACL surgery on the other.

• Morale: it keeps the player focused and gives them an idea of what to expect post-surgery.

3. Post-surgery training must be progressive and challenging: if you give an injured player a photocopied sheet of exercises and tell them to come back in a month, don’t be surprised if they haven’t progressed! Footballers are athletes: they need to be given appropriate challenges, encouraged and supported through their rehabilitation. The end goal is to get them back playing fast and furious rather than simply walking.

Remembering these three tips will help your players feel part of the team and, hopefully, return to play in better condition than before they got injured. I never rush the process; instead, I make sure we are making the most of the time we have.

Can you afford not to make some simple changes to keep your players healthy?

Here’s what a healthy footballer looks like in training:

Contact me if you want further advice: excelsiorathletic@gmail.com