Your experience of knee ligaments

5 weeks ago I was playing a fairy sport and took a whack to my knee. Cutting a longish story short I have had x rays, an MRI scan and a few consultations. Only for the results on Thursday that i have torn the Medial Collateral Ligament (dont know how torn yet). Sort of expected that given the pain and lack of mobility.

I started physio this week to help retain what is left of my upper leg muscles, there is a definite loss there. What I am concerned about is not being able to bend beyond 90 degrees, is that normal? I wouldn’t normally ask, but its a while before I see the knee specialist.

What are your experiences of knee ligament tears (especially MCL), how long were you off the bike and did you have a loss of knee range during recovery? I’m struggling to keep sane, i havnt ridden for 2 months! Bought some new bits, but it doesnt quite fill the weekend void! Someone said to me last night i would have been better breaking my leg instead of ligament damage, at least it would have been properly on the mend by now!

I tore my acl and partially tore my mcl some years ago. I had surgery to replace my acl with one of my hamstrings and intensive physio. I was off the bike entirely for four months or so and it a slow recovery from there. Realistically it was a year from injury to 99% recovery. It would have been longer if I didn’t have the benefit of private medical cover and a great surgeon.

Just heading out so I’ll reply with more detail later on.

Don’t give up hope though, but accept its not a short road to recovery

I tore my interior medial ligament playing footy. It was a long time before I could even dream of kicking a ball again!
There was a restriction in the range of movement initially but that heals over a few months.
I didn’t get physio but worked in the gym a lot to build up the surrounding muscles. It’s healed completely now.

Cheers bigG. I have had to accept it is a slow recovery, made me realise I am easily broken despite what I think! But I’m impatient, I want it fixed now! Have a good ride, really missing it at the moment as the weekends are my only chance to regain sanity doing stuff to balance out the rest of the week.

Echo bigc. I did acl and had benefit of private surgeon and most importantly about 5 months of weekly physio to guide you through the gently increase as the hamstring cells “learn”to behave as a ligament. Lots of road cycling from 3-4 months then MTb at about 5-6. A year at least for full recovery but i did lands end jog after 18 months and now play 5a side and ski. So if you’re getting it fixed get best surgeon who’s a good rep. Make loads of noise to ensure you get enough physio and dig deep for a long haul. Worth it if you want to stay active Cross a variety of sports.

twisted my left knee in an off at the beginning of last summer. it took a good three months until i was able to ride up hill for more than 20 minutes without it hurting.

in an other fall i managed to damage the tendons in my wrist. that took a good while and some cortesone shots before it was useable again, but even now i get the odd twitchy pain if i over do it.

ligaments are rubbish. so are tendons.

So we are all in agreement, ligaments are rubbish…and they take a long time to heal. Quite a few stories of surgery up there, was that a decision by you or a recommendation by doctor? I have been told to work with the physio as MCL could repair itself. A decision for surgery would be another 4 weeks down the NHS timeline which starts eating into my plans for skye in may and other summer trips. I’m the only member of the immediate family without private health care.

I dont see what difference going down the private route would have. I’ve seen plenty damaged MCLs, also seen lots of people delay their recovery by trying to train too hard to get back to normal.

Tore my medial clipping a tree stump a 7 years ago.

Lost 2 inches off my thigh, couldn’t bend it as you say and also couldn’t lock it out – in the mornings it would be locked up and I’d have to painfully make it bend.

Physio sorted it nicely and in about 3 months I was gently back on the road bike but not “fully” recovered for over a year. I think I was putting in easy length light xc rides and almost normal after about 6/8 months. This was all done in discussion with a physio.

Unless its very bad I don’t think you will need surgery, but long term if youve disturbed the joint it can affect the patella tendon or there could be debris in there which might need work.

I paid for physio; the guy was a specialist sports injury physio and had a real understanding of what needed to be done – he was connected to a gym so there was a bit of weight machine (later on), cycle and tread mill work to assess how things were going.. and the physio was adjusted as such The NHS offered very only basic physio (a rubber band), 2 weeks was the first appointment and 3 to start. Thats too long. Fair enough tho, its free and they have limited resources and all that.

If you are limping or on crutches you might get secondary problems, I started to get back spasms at about week three due to the imbalance of limping/crutches. A good physio will be asking you/looking out for that too.

completely snapped my acl, tore most of the way through my mcl and fractured both sides of the knee joint racing motocross, i had a full acl reconstruction using my hamstrings, i have full range of motion and no problems since the operation.
Physio is a pita but make sure you do as your told and really work at it and you’ll have no problems. ask youre physio how hard you can work it and do just that no more no less,i lost huge amounts of muscle from my left leg but did everything i was told as much as i was allowed and my doctor was amazed at how quickly i came back.
My dad shattered his wrist and needed an external frame to set the joint for 3 months but when he was allowed to train again he really worked it hard, his friend had an identical incident and didnt work it hard because it made it hurt and ache. my dad has full ROM his friend has about 40%.

Unlikely you will need surgery for MCL injury, most of the people above had surgery to reconstruct their ACL which is a bit different. If you knee remains stiff then they may have to something more invasive such as MUA (manipulation under aesthetic).

If you only have 90 degree of bend then the physio should be doing a good amount of manual therapy (push and pulling your knee which normally hurts!) on you knee to try and increase your range of movement and some soft tissue work on the MCL if needed, if not ask for a different physio!

Ligaments do often take quite a long time to heal, quite often still causing some pain even after 3 months.