Petey's Knee
Its been almost two weeks since the Canucks’ rookie sensation sustained a knee injury while playing the Montreal Canadiens. While getting tangled up with Montreal forward and fellow rookie Jesperi Kotkaniemi, our guy fell awkwardly exposing his knee to a position that would be worthy of the latest Cirque Du Soliel act.
Initially, all signs looked terrifying for a fan of the Canucks, a fan of the game, or anyone in general. The motionless Elias soon grasping his knee began to remind one of the poorly managed injury from a former Canucks supestar
It was unknown what the prognosis would be, but it did look serious. Within a 48 hr time frame when the Canucks played Hockey Night in Canada against the Toronto Maple Leafs we got our first sense of releaf or relief when seeing Elias walking towards the dressing room with no limp or no crutches, a sure fire sign that there wasn’t major major damage. A subsequent MRI revealed that Elias suffered an slight MCL, Medial Collateral Ligament, injury and would miss the next 1-2 weeks.
So, simply put Elias Petterson and the Canucks dodged a bullet. This begs the question, what is the medial collateral ligament?
The Medial collateral ligament is an important stabilizer of the knee by providing support and resistance to prevent the knee from falling inwards or rotating in excess. It runs along the inside of the femur and tibia, it also has connections to other important knee structures which can make the injuries a little riskier. (1)
Don’t worry about all the scientific mumbo jumbo, The MCL is the red stuff
All injuries to this ligament are not created equally. They can be simple, only involving a small portion of the ligament, termed grade 1. The most complex is injury is given a grade 3 and involves a complete rupture of the ligament. The good news for the Canucks is that Elias sustained a Grade 1 injury , limiting him for 2 weeks, and not a 12 week plus grade 3 journey. (2)
When it comes to injuries in Hockey the MCL is the most commonly injured ligament of the knee complex, it has been shown to be the second most common cause for games missed at the collegiate level (3). The good news for Canuck land is that Elias will be back out on the ice sooner than later, and sooner than first expected.
1) Horschild, S (2016) Functional Anatomy for Physical Therapists. New York, NY:Thieme Publishers
2) Laprade RF, Wijdicks CA, The Management of Injuries to the Medial Side of the Knee, J ournal of orthopaedic & sports physical therapy. 2012 Vol 42 Num 3 221-233
3) Grant JA, Bedi A, Kurz J, et al. Incidence and injury characteristics of medial collateral ligament injuries in male collegiate ice hockey players. Sports Health. 2013; 5:270Y2