Podcast Appearances
And making it even more confusing to diagnose is the fact that oftentimes plica will click or pop over the medial aspect of the knee in much the same way a cartilage tear or a meniscus injury might.
So while the history of a plica syndrome doesn't usually involve a specific one particular movement that led to that injury like a meniscus might,
Clinically, they can often present very similarly.
The bad news is that Plaka Syndrome hurts.
The good news is, even if conservative measures prove ineffective, the surgical fix is usually fairly quick and the outcomes are usually pretty good.
And unlike some of the other surgeries Sarah would eventually face, plica aren't really structural, so there isn't much risk in terms of instability or anything that might threaten her athletic career.
Unfortunately for Sarah, a simple plica fix was just the tip of the iceberg of what she would have to face in the pursuit of her athletic dreams.
Being at step zero, the fight it was going to take to come back.
Those are the words of an Olympian, friends.
An Olympian who's been through the heartbreak and physical pain associated with a gruesome, atypical injury.
Not to mention the mental toll that it takes each and every time a serious injury must be addressed and overcome.
As I'm listening, I'm taken by three things here.
First, Sarah's injury isn't a run-of-the-mill ACL tear that we see in soccer most commonly.
Not that there really is a standard ACL injury, but we know from three-plus decades of research that female athletes are anywhere from three to as much as ten times more likely, depending on where you look, to rupture their ACL from non-contact mechanisms than their male counterparts.
Several theories have been investigated over the years, but the one trainable difference is related to neuromuscular strength.
Through multiple studies published by Dr. Frank Noyes and the Cincinnati Sports Medicine Foundation and their sports metrics program, it's been somewhat definitively shown that that risk can be equalized between males and females simply through training.
this isn't that.
Sarah's injury isn't due to landing or cutting in an open field.
It's a high-velocity collision involving tremendous force.
And in the end, at least in that moment, it leaves her athletic career in doubt.