Expert Dr Kal Palmer of the Institute of Sport Exercise and Health in London, and Leicester Tigers RFC, runs the rule over the injury Manchester United’s Luke Shaw suffered against PSV Eindhoven on Tuesday night.
Explain the injury Luke Shaw suffered?
It is a reasonably common injury. If the leg was in the air when the contact was made it probably wouldn’t have broken but, if your leg is on the ground when the tackle is made, all the energy goes through the lower leg and the tibia bends and breaks. As it is such a big bone and the fibula is attached to it, that can break as well. Hence what we call a tib-fib fracture. Manchester United have described it as ‘a clean break’ which means the bone is in two pieces rather than multiple pieces. There are two options. You can put the leg in a cast and wait for it to set or put a rod into the tibia to hold it together, which is usually quicker. But both methods can be prone to not healing properly.
What will the rehabilitation entail?
He’ll be on crutches for a while and after a few weeks they will look to get him in the pool for cardio-vascular work then strength work. He’ll have regular x-rays and CT scans and once enough new bone has grown he will use an anti-gravity treadmill or an underwater treadmill and they will increase the amount of weight through the leg.
How long will he be out for?
He is going to miss most of the season or the whole season. There is a risk that he will never come back as good, you just don’t know, and this will probably be going through his mind right now, but he is in the best hands. Manchester United have a fantastic medical department and he will have the best rehabilitation in the world. I can’t see it not healing properly because it will be monitored regularly. It could be February or March before he has recovered, but that is before he is playing competitively again. There are three elements to him returning to the first team – healing a broken bone, getting match fit and then proving himself to the manager that he’s good enough to get back into the team.
Dr Kal Parmar is a sports medicine doctor at the Institute of Sport Exercise and Health in London and Pure Sports Medicine as well as club doctor at Leicester Tigers RFC.
