my knee’s been sore for months now especially when trying to sleep, walking and working (heavy manual labour) cycling seems fine. Went to the quack today as i’ve been swallowing co-codamol all weekend. seems i’ve buggered my crusiate ligament and am to be referred to hospital. looking for some positive prognosis from some hopefully former sufferers.

Rebuild on the cards

GF destroyed her knee -back to running but she had a leading expert work on her knee as a pro skier. Took a a year of physio work.

I would wait until you get consulted and scanned.

Yes some ppl have crippling injuries and some ppl had great recoveries.

Chill, rest and get sorted whatever the injury is.

Keep your mind entertained on other hobbies if you can’t ride for a while.

Play the piano or guitar etc. Whats the point worrying-it doesn’t fix you.

In 2000 I completely tore my cruciate ligament in my right knee playing competitive rugby, my god it was THE most painful think I’ve ever done. I had an arthroscopy originally as they thought it was cartilege damage but turns out it wasn’t it. When I came around from op I remember the Surgeon saying to me “do you ski?” me: “No” s: “Good cos you’ll never ski again”. He explained that I should have reconstructive surgery where they slice your leg open from hip to below knee, tear off strips of your muscle and sow it through the knee cap to create a new ligament. He said it would be 6 weeks off my feet completely. I was going into my final year of uni so decided it wasn’t the best time to do it, then ended up getting a new job in London so never got around to it. Spoke to Surgeon about NOT having surgery and he just said if you keep your quads and hamstrings strong you MAY not have a problem, but you will not be able to do any sports which involving twisting, so football, rugby etc etc, but rowing and cycling (my other 2 sports) would be fine.

9 years on I rarely have problems with my knee having never had the reconstructive surgery. In the cold it gets a bit sore, if I do a lot of running it gets a little sore. Cycling no problems, running 10ks maybe 3-4 times a week no problem, never want to run any further as I’m paranoid pounding pavements will knacker it completely.

About 4 years ago I decided I wanted a ski holiday, since I remembered the Surgeon saying I couldn’t ski I decided to try snowboarding, no problems at all and been every year since.

So there you go I dont’ really have many problems, the Surgeon bigged it up to me and made it appear and seem to me like my sporting lifestyleways over … clearly not!!!!

I was always told that physio was pointless for ligament/cartilege damange, I never had any, especially as mine is completely torn.

Good luck and keep us posted on your diagnosis.
Oh PS the only thing I can’t do is sit cross legged, or kneel on the floor! way too painful!

I’ve had grade 2 tears of my right MCL and ACL (medial and anterior cruciate ligaments)… Either one of which could have been pretty debilitating, both together was a bit inconvenient

My experience isn’t standard, because my leg was already good for nothing when I did my knee because I was recovering from a fractured hip and surgery… So I’m never really sure what parts of my inury were from the hip or the knee.

That was, mmm, 4 years ago now? Now it doesn’t hold me back much at all on the bike, except that I can’t use SPDs because my leg’s got no tolerance to twisting (I’d be fine to ride in them, not fine to crash in them). I have other problems from the muscle damage, but that’s totally seperate from the ligaments. I had to wear a support for a long time because the joint was so unstable, but now I only need it occasionally.

Mine was about as bad as it gets without requiring reconstructive surgery, and my recovery’s been about as good as it gets. I can run for a bus as long as it’s not too far, or jump about like an idiot at a rock gig, and I can ride my bike as well as most people. My knee’s still a bit easy to injure, I can twist it or overstress it easily but it’s not too bad as knees go.

My recovery was very, very slow, and incredibly hard work but I don’t want to put a downer on you as it doesn’t really sound like your injury is as bad as either of mine 😉 I’m more posting to say that it can be pretty bloody bad, but that even if it is, there’s a chance of getting back to something very close to normal.

Broke mine snowboarding a few years ago. It was immensely painful and made even worse by being stuck at the top of the mountain with no bastard stopping to help me so i had to walk all the way back to the lift station to get the gondola back down again. Had to wear a brace for a long time due to constant dislocating of my knee, even just getting up from a chair would result in a loud cracking sound and Id be virtually on the floor.

Had to wait a grand total of 18 months for a surgery date. Had the operation in April 2006 and was declared fully fit by the physios by January 2007. I had the advantage of already being fairly fit at the time of the surgery. Physio was hard going but I recovered quicker than expected.

I was told to keep constantly exercising to maintain a good level of fitness so that muscles around the knee can help the new ligament to cope. Ive done very little exercise since the surgery (aside from a bit of surfing and the very occasional gym visit).

Its a long and hard slog to get back to full strength, the mental barriers can be hard to overcome I found, especially trusting the knee again after such a long period of dislocation.

Good luck with it all.

I ripped my right knee’s anterior cruciate ligament bringing a bit of bone with it. They screwed the bone back in and attatched the ligament somehow. It was playing basketball back in school. I picked biking up about 5 years later. I’m sure my knee is f**ked cos it shakes from right to left! Never really effects (affects?) my biking. Couldn’t run for too long though!

Snapped my ACL at CYB in 2004.

Surgeon said too old at 58 for reconstruction. Carried on riding with titanium brace – eventually badgered surgeon to do op after MRI scan.

He carried out a patella graft (took length of tendon, drilled though knee and attached at either end)

Fortunate that my physio was ex Notts Forest physio in Brian Clough era – so he was tough. Discharged after 4 months. Good as new now – never think about it and at 63 still enjoying my riding!

I tore pretty much all the ligaments in my left knee in ’03 (along with some other damage) but was lucky not to completely snap any. Took me 6 months before I could ride, and 9 before it was feeling solid and I could lose the brace. For nearly six years after that I had no problems at all – so there is plenty of hope, don’t worry. A couple of months back though I did twang it a bit sliding down a muddy bank and it’s only just feeling right again. The problem with ligaments is that once you tear them, they’re longer and they don’t spring back, so you’re left with a joint that’s less stable than it was. Essentially in normal operation it makes little or no difference but you’re more susceptible to similar injuries, ie bending the joint in directions it’s not supposed to, so you just have to be a bit more careful.

But get the advice of a specialist of course 🙂

Ruptured my ACL January 2008, had a lot of pain in my knee after twisting and falling during a game of hockey, but casualty diagnosed it as a sprain – shouldn’t have believed them as they missed a broken ankle before.

Anyway my specialist said whether you want to get it repaired depends on what you want to do, any sport that involves twisting is usually a no no without an ACL as it provides the stability in the knee but you can usually cope with everyday life. Linear sports (running, cycling etc) are possible but you run the risk of tearing your cartlidge from time to time (accidental twisting, slipping etc) and this increases the risk of early onset arthritis (from what I remember the specialist saying).

There are 3 operations to repair an ACL, patella graft, donor graft and hamstring graft. I had the hamstring graft for which there is an 80% chance of success. I was off work from 14th September 2008 until 20th November 2008 a key thing to remember in these financially pushed times. I’m lucky in that I’m in a high demand skill area with a big multinational with very good T&Cs. The first 3 weeks were the worst, 5+ hours of physio a day, unable to get out – I had to be planned with the missus making me breakfast, packed lunch and flask of tea before going to work.

Anyway I’m 9 months post op and while the knee’s not 100% (about 95%), I spent 8 months with it injured and it’s way better than it was then when I struggled to get in and out of cars or walk up stairs. Whether you have or need the op will depend on your circumstances and how severe the injury is and what you want to do. That’s my personal experience but listen to the specialist, do some research and good luck.

PS. I spent the time off hunting down parts for a bike building project and as a result had a sparkly new bike to look forward to and this helped
drive me on with the physio.