Sounds a lot like my ACL rupture. Left acl rupture, tear in the miniscal cartilage and sprain/strain to all the other soft tissue in the knee.
Initial injury in March 2022 & reconstruction in February this year. I’m just back to martial arts now having been back on bike 5 months post surgery. All feels nearly normal and should get better as I ramp up the exercise.
I’m 50 and according to the consultant physio I saw at the first knee clinic, at the upper end of the age range for reconstruction. Orthopaedic consultant was fine to do the reconstruction once I explained I wanted to get back to martial arts.
After the initial injury it took 6 months or so to settle down enough to start prehab at the gym & I think it was 3 months or so and I was back doing gentle cycling (don’t mention riding the Macavalance with a heavily strapped knee 2 weeks after the injury).
Anything that involved twisting was out though.
If sport is his life I’d push for ACL reconstruction, especially if its football and snowboarding as you need a stable knee for that.
A word of warning, the first 6 weeks post surgery are hell. I seriously wondered why the **** I’d done it given the step back it felt like but 38 weeks down the line I’m glad I had the reconstruction.