by drew friedman
With the spring season starting, injuries have put athletes on the bench.
Earlier in the school year, junior Matthew Epstein received a severe injury that took months to completely heal.
“I fully tore my ACL and lateral meniscus in my right knee in late September in a club soccer game,” Epstein said. “As I jumped up to get a ball, I was pushed slightly off-balance and when I landed, my knee twisted, I heard a pop and then I couldn’t walk.”
An injury to the Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL), part of the knee, is very difficult to treat.
“Severity plays a major part in the healing process. Soft tissue injuries tend to heal faster than a fracture,” athletic trainer John Reynolds said. However, “ligament tears [such as an ACL tear] will take longer than a fracture.”
In the Athletic Training Center, the athletic trainers see between 20 and 50 students every day.
“It’s a unique opportunity for students to [get help] in school,” Reynolds said.
The job of the athletic trainers consists of treating and identifying sports-related injuries for student athletes.
The speed of recovery largely depends on “the compliance of the patient and how willingly the patient follows instruction,” Reynolds said.
The type of sport does not affect the chances of injuries as much as the popularity of the sport.
“We tend to see more total injuries in sports with higher numbers of participants,” Reynolds said.
“They told me basically the same stuff as my doctor: don’t strain it [and] keep up with physical therapy,” junior Dirk Edison said.
Considering the severity and timing of his injury, the tear in his ACL only slightly affected Epstein’s schoolwork, allowing him to catch up quickly with his classes while continuing rehabilitation.
“The injury kept me off of my feet for about a week after my late October surgery; however, I only had to miss a day or two of school because the … rain days [from Hurricane Sandy] gave me extra rest,” Epstein said. But once he “regained the ability to walk without crutches in about a week, everything was normal.”
Although everyday activities were relatively easy for Epstein, they took a bigger toll on Edison.
“I got my injury from playing ice hockey. I was hit in an awkward position and I tore my shoulder,” Edison said, “I could not drive for almost two weeks and sleeping was almost impossible because I had to lay in an up-right position and could not move for fear of hurting my shoulder. Also, everyday tasks such as getting dressed and showering became a lot harder for the first two weeks.”
Edison visited the Marshall athletic trainers once, but received his physical therapy elsewhere.
He “enjoyed it because it was basically the only physical activity I was getting. The therapy strengthened my shoulder and overall sped up the recovery,” Edison said.
Although Epstein never visited the athletic trainers at Marshall, he had to undergo physical therapy for about three and a half months “to first regain range of motion in my knee, then progressing to work on balance and strength in surrounding muscles,” Epstein said.
The therapy was beneficial to Epstein’s health.
“[It] helped me to return to the capabilities I had before,” Epstein said.
Although these injuries hinder students’ abilities to perform physically, the athletes still keep an optimistic outlook.
“I had to miss the entire track season for my injury,” Epstein said, “but I hope to be able to return to play soccer with Marshall for at least part of this season.”