It has been 405 days since Aston Villa\u2019s Wesley Moraes suffered his ACL injury due to a challenge by Burnley\u2019s Ben Mee. Aston Villa fans apart from a few Instagram videos and vague updates from Dean Smith, are in the dark regarding this injury. Why is it taking so long? Will he ever play again? Will he be as good?<\/p>\n

First, let\u2019s look at the mechanism of the injury. It is caused by direct trauma when the knee is extended. The striker and Mee were both sprinting when the challenge came in, as the picture below shows his knee extended and this coupled with the force of the tackle and speed in which it occurred, led to the awful injury for Wesley.<\/p>\n

Following the injury large amounts of swelling will develop, resulting in a decreased range of movement and eventually muscle weakness as the person is unable to use their leg.<\/p>\n

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Photo: Transfer Tavern<\/p><\/div>\n

The ACL itself is a band of tissues joining the thigh bone to the shin bone at the knee joint. It is crucial for the use of the leg, it inhibits excessive movement of the tibia from the femur. Which essentially means it prevents the shin from sliding forwards. It provides a large amount of stability to the leg. Clearly demonstrating why injuring it is so devastating, especially for someone in professional sport. It involves and long and thorough rehabilitation period, but what exactly does this consist of and how long should it take?<\/p>\n

The rehabilitation period is outlined here:<\/p>\n

First 3 months: Initial rehab<\/h3>\n
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Range of movement exercises, focusing on contracting the quadriceps without resistance to see how weak the muscles are.<\/li>\n
Gait re-education (rehabbing the walking pattern)<\/li>\n
Full range of movement (quadricep strength at 80%)<\/li>\n
Further increase quadricep strength, start running and working on agility<\/li>\n
Work in straight lines to avoid cutting movements<\/li>\n
High demand activity<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
3-6 months: Return to play<\/h3>\n
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Progressing from treadmill to field activities<\/li>\n
Sport specific drills<\/li>\n
Players practice the sport 2-3 months before a comeback<\/li>\n
Work on increasing match sharpness<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
These are rough guidelines and are player dependent, but how was Wesley\u2019s rehabilitation been progressing? From Wesley\u2019s Instagram videos we can see in early November he had completed his gait re-education work as he began to start running. On the 6^{th<\/sup> November he was videoed running on a treadmill, and then by the 17^{th<\/sup> November he was on the field working in straight line patterns.<\/p>\n}}
The progress is clear to see as you compare his running mechanics from the 30^{th<\/sup> November and 18^{th<\/sup> December. Wesley is becoming faster and beginning to get back to speed. The issue is due to being in professional sport there are several things that must be done. Strength and reconditioning to ensure this does not happen again, as well as fitness levels and retraining the cognitive areas of his game.<\/p>\n}}
Welsey needs full match sharpness before he can return to the side and contribute. Further progression is clear as he moves through his recovery. From December intensity has increased massively, his trainers can be heard telling him to \u201caccelerate\u201d in December which shows they were pushing him more. On the 17^{th<\/sup> May it was mainly football skills and the 23^{rd<\/sup> May they were working on increasing his power.<\/p>\n}}
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A post shared by Wesley Moraes (@wesleymoraes07)<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n