Soccer superstar, Cristiano Ronaldo, was in his prime when a knee injury forced him to rethink everything about his style of play. What did he do? He went ahead and changed his iconic dribbling-intensive style of play to a much more efficient style. A style where he had to focus more on the positions and the timing than on excessively dribbling the ball. This is a moment where an injury builds or breaks a player and gives them an ultimatum: ‘Either you adapt or you say goodbye’. However, not all players get this choice, and some have even had to leave the sport they so loved, all because of an injury.
In the NBA, the story of Larry Bird is a legend. After all, he went through a double heel surgery in 1988, in addition to his worsening back problems, and played through the pain for 4 years. Something very few could have managed to do. Eventually, the injuries got the better of Larry, forcing him to retire in 1992. One such player who has, over the last 24 hours, suffered a torn right Achilles tendon and is unsure of what the future holds for him is Celtics’ Jayson Tatum. If recent reports are to be believed, Tatum will be in for a long road of recovery before he sets foot back on the court. While many might be thinking about how long before Tatum comes back, Kayla Nicole, a fitness influencer, has made a statement that has turned heads.
Kayla Nicole has often been in the headlines over her beef with her ex, Travis Kelce. But this time around, she is on it for good reason. While referring to Tatum’s injury, Kayla Nicole, in an Instagram story, has talked about the link between being a male athlete and suffering from Achilles’ injuries. In the story, she talked about how males are susceptible to suffering from a torn Achilles, while women are susceptible to torn ACLs, especially during their cycles. Demanding more thorough research on these topics, while saying that these injuries feel avoidable.
And it looks like she actually might be onto something here. According to Austin Foot and Ankle Institute, initial research does show that despite men having longer and stronger Achilles tendons, they are comparatively inelastic and stiffer than women’s. This is evident from the fact that 84% of all such ruptures happen in men. Making it a common occurrence in the NBA for players to rupture their tendons. Even top players such as Kevin Durant, Klay Thompson, and Ryan Howard have at some point or the other torn their Achilles’ tendons. This has made the NBA a league that sees one of the highest numbers of torn Achilles’ tendons despite all steps taken to avoid the injury.
In conversation with CBS News, Dr Khalil, who extensively studied NBA players going back to the 1970s with such ruptures, said that 72% of the players eventually made a return to the league. While talking about how players perform post such an injury, Khalil said, “By the time we got out to three years after surgery, they had maybe played in less games or started less game, but overall their minutes played and performance was generally about the same.” However, he also noted, “That being said, players with Achilles tendon injuries did play less overall seasons after returning than the healthy controls.”
Will the NBA star make a comeback?
As updates keep popping in about Jayson Tatum‘s injury during Game 4 against the Knicks, one thing is for sure. This is serious. Post the surgery, it has been confirmed that he will miss out on the rest of the postseason. It is also being reported that he might have to sit out a huge chunk of next season. That is, if he is lucky and if the injury doesn’t force him to miss the next season entirely. At this time, the biggest question remains, will he be able to come back?
Players missing out on games due to injuries and then coming back as if nothing had happened is nothing new. But it is the severity of the injury that forces us to think whether he can come back and be the player he was before the injury. A great example in this case would have to be Kevin Durant. Durant, who suffered the injury in June of 2019, took 18 gruelling months before he could enter the court again in December 2020. But once he got the touch and feel of the court, there was nothing that could stop him. He ended up making the greatest of comebacks and found his old self back, averaging 26.9 points, 6.7 rebounds, and 5.6 assists.
Another great example, but this time from the world of the NFL, has to be Aaron Rodgers. Rodgers had ruptured his Achilles tendon in September of 2023 in a game against the Buffalo Bills and had to sit out the rest of the season. However, through sheer grit and determination, even at the age of 40, Rodgers made a comeback in 2024, clocking in 3,897 yards with a QBR of 48.0. Although these are not his best numbers, but considering his age and the fact that he came back from such a serious injury, they are pretty damn good.
In the end, to answer the question, it all boils down to how serious the injury is, how desperately the player wants to be on the field, and how much he is ready to work for it. But the prevalence of such injuries also raises an important question of whether the leagues are overplaying the players, with discussions relating to workload management already underway across sports.
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