Tennis Star Rafael Nadal, Me, and Jumpers Knee/Tendinosis/Tendinitis
Tennis star Rafael Nadal and I have more in common than just having an awesome sounding name. We both were afflicted with possibly the most annoying sports injury known to man, Jumpers Knee. Now, you may be wondering why I say Rafael Nadal has Jumpers Knee when the media claims that he has “patellar tendinitis.”
[Notice how he wears tape on both knees to help ease the pressure. I used to do something similar while in the army but quickly realized that it wasn't a good long term solution in healing the injury. Besides, unlike Nadal I have hair on my legs and having to pull off my leg hair every time I took the thing off was not pleasant!]
First, let me give you the excerpt from the A.P. where they quote Nadal as well as a physician who says he has tendinitis:
“I have been playing with pain on my knees for some months now and I simply can’t go on like this,” Nadal said. “The pain was limiting certain movements in my body, which affected me mentally as well.”
Spanish Tennis Federation physician Dr. Angel Ruiz-Cotorro said Nadal has tendinitis in both knees.
“His treatment will involve oral anti-inflammatories, physiotherapy, as well as muscular exercises for both quadriceps,” Ruiz-Cotorro said. (http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/tennis/news/story?id=4245078)
I may not be a physician, but I do know something about injuries, and in my very strong personal opinion either the media misquoted Dr. Ruiz-Cotorro or the good doctor should brush up on his terminology. Why do I say that? Because tendinitis is the acute inflammation of the tendon and Nadal is talking about having had pain for months.
If he’s had pain that long, it’s not an acute injury, it’s a chronic one and definitely not tendinitis, but more likely tendinosis or Jumpers Knee. Even Wikipedia agrees with me, stating “If the symptoms of tendinitis last for several months or longer it is probably tendinosis.”
To make matters worse, Dr. Ruiz-Cotorro then goes on to recommend anti-inflammatory medication and quadriceps exercises. If you listened in on my interview with Dr. Hauser (don’t worry, I’m going to post parts II and III soon), then you know the solution to healing a soft tissue injury is not anti-inflammatory medication. After all, the entire inflammatory process happens in the first place in order to heal your body, not to hurt it. The last thing you want to do is stop the healing process.
Then Dr. Ruiz-Cotorro goes on to say that Nadal will do “muscular exercises for both quadriceps”. Are you kidding me? Whatever Rafael Nadal’s injury is, I guarantee you it’s not because he has weak quadriceps. The guy’s legs are built like an ox!
So what do I think? Well, I don’t believe Nadal has a terrible case of Jumpers Knee or Tendinosis, since he’s able to continue playing tennis and only has pain with certain movements. This is important since it means that there is a very solid chance that if he gets treated properly, he can come back to playing at 100% sooner rather than later.
I also think that Nadal should take a lesson from Hines Ward and Troy Polamalu from the Pitssburgh Steelers, and go get checked out for either platelet rich plasma therapy or prolotherapy. If there’s one thing pro football players know about, it’s healing injuries. Not only would Rafael Nadal be doing himself a favor, he’d also be helping the entire medical community outside of the United States and United Kingdom by using his star power to get these effective treatments more publicity.
That just about sums up my opinion on the issue. What do you think about Rafael Nadal’s injury? Be sure to join the discussion and leave a comment!
