As most of you might have heard, Lionel Messi, one of the world’s greatest soccer players, has sustained a left knee injury.  In Barcelona’s La Liga seasons match, Messi had suffered from a MCL knee injury and doctors said he will be bed rested for two-three months. In addition to his injury Messi will sit out off Barcelona’s La Liga and UEFA Champions League matches as well as Argentina’s International Qualifying games for the 2018 Russian World Cup, which in result is terrible news for the Spanish giants and his country. A MCL injury is a sprain or tears to the Medial Collateral Ligament. Knee injuries are most common in sports like football and soccer; however some are recoverable without surgery. Another common knee injury is the Anterior Cruciate Ligament, or ACL.

       The MCL is a band of tissue on the inside of your knee. It connects your thighbone to the bone of your lower leg. The MCL keeps the knee from bending inward. The ACL joins the upper leg bone with the lower leg bone. The ACL keeps the knee stable.

       Mr. Craan, Edison’s fitness teacher and coach for the boy’s soccer team had said you can hurt your MCL and/or your ACL during activities that involve bending, twisting, or a quick change of direction. In addition to sports that involve stop-and-go movements, jumping, or weaving.

      In our Thomas Edison soccer team, the Edison Inventors, Ayman Azad had torn his ACL last season. It was a season ending injury for him. When he began to recover from his injury he was bed rested for two weeks, where he was no longer involved in sports, and he had to take pain relievers to subside the swelling and pain on his knee. Once the pain and swelling had subsided, he began rehabilitation, which included exercises to restore strength and normal range of motion to his knee.

      According to Mr. Craan, he proposed that athletes do plyometrics, balance, and strengthening/stability exercises in order to prevent knee injury. Plyometric exercises are “jump training” exercise where, for instance, an athlete jumping off a small box and immediately jumping back into the air after contact with the floor, hence repeated jumping. Balance training usually involves using balance boards. To improve single-leg core strength and stability, athletes perform exercises such as jumping and landing on one leg with the knee flexed and then momentarily holding that position.

       Knee injuries are a commonplace in the world of sports, but when athletes take preventative measures to avoid knee injuries like exercising and taking knee therapy, in the long run they will be safe and healthy.