I'm going to try to see if I can piece together what might have happened to Myles Jack given the information from Coach Jim Mora's presser today and Chris Foster's article in the Times yesterday and why this situation could be different from that of Scooby Wright and others who came back a few weeks after a meniscus tear and repair. I know some of you wondered why it was going to take 4-6 months recovery time and not less. So here it goes:
Jim Mora describes an impact onto Myles' knee as bumping knees with another player and not a twisting or a sudden stop that could have caused a shearing tear of the meniscus. He also uses the word "anterior meniscus" as the area of the injury and repair. The "anterior meniscus" is probably the anterior (or front) part of the medial meniscus. It sits at the top of the tibia, which is the larger of the two lower leg bones. With his knee in the flexed position, this could have exposed the cartilage to a direct blow, thus causing the tear, and, from the description of "bumping knees," I believe that this was the case here.
Now for the reason why Myles may be out 4-6 months. The tear of the anterior meniscus most likely occurred at the outer edge of the meniscus. This is significant because it is the part of the meniscus which has a good blood supply and therefore, is amenable to surgical repair (meaning you could stitch it back together) and it would allow for healing to occur. This is in contrast to a meniscus tear which occurs at the inner part of the meniscus which has little to no blood supply and therefore will not heal if it is repaired with stitching. Usually, these "inner meniscus tears" undergo removal of the torn pieces, as in the case of Scooby Wright, and once the swelling and discomfort goes down the player is able to resume his activity without fear of further damage to the meniscus. In Myles' case, the repaired meniscus has to be given time to heal together, allowing for cross-bridging and scarring to occur and prevent the two edges from coming apart. In this case, he will need to be immobilized for weeks to maximized the healing before he would be allowed to put more weight on the repaired knee and start rehabilitation. So if all goes well, the torn cartilage will heal well after surgery.
Tunadoctor
Jim Mora describes an impact onto Myles' knee as bumping knees with another player and not a twisting or a sudden stop that could have caused a shearing tear of the meniscus. He also uses the word "anterior meniscus" as the area of the injury and repair. The "anterior meniscus" is probably the anterior (or front) part of the medial meniscus. It sits at the top of the tibia, which is the larger of the two lower leg bones. With his knee in the flexed position, this could have exposed the cartilage to a direct blow, thus causing the tear, and, from the description of "bumping knees," I believe that this was the case here.
Now for the reason why Myles may be out 4-6 months. The tear of the anterior meniscus most likely occurred at the outer edge of the meniscus. This is significant because it is the part of the meniscus which has a good blood supply and therefore, is amenable to surgical repair (meaning you could stitch it back together) and it would allow for healing to occur. This is in contrast to a meniscus tear which occurs at the inner part of the meniscus which has little to no blood supply and therefore will not heal if it is repaired with stitching. Usually, these "inner meniscus tears" undergo removal of the torn pieces, as in the case of Scooby Wright, and once the swelling and discomfort goes down the player is able to resume his activity without fear of further damage to the meniscus. In Myles' case, the repaired meniscus has to be given time to heal together, allowing for cross-bridging and scarring to occur and prevent the two edges from coming apart. In this case, he will need to be immobilized for weeks to maximized the healing before he would be allowed to put more weight on the repaired knee and start rehabilitation. So if all goes well, the torn cartilage will heal well after surgery.
Tunadoctor
