Injuries note
by Kayo (2019-07-11 05:21:04)
Edited on 2019-07-11 05:22:50

In reply to: and another off the front page *  posted by olson

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Arthroscopic surgery didn't exist in those days, so knee surgery involved cutting to expose the entire knee. The surgery was as traumatic as the injury itself, often more traumatic such that many athletes chose to live with pain and diminished capacity instead of an operation to repair the knee.

Injuries that we fix routinely nowadays were considered somewhere between career threatening and career ending in 1967, especially knee injuries. It is not strange that several of the ND players you listed got hurt and never played again.

Consider the career of Gale Sayers. His return from knee surgery to rush for 1,032 yards in 1969 was considered miraculous at the time; but even while having a good statistical season, it was obvious that he wasn't close to the runner he had been before the injury. Then he played two games in each of the next two seasons and had to retire.

Most returns from knee surgery looked like Sayers' 1970 and 1971 seasons, not his 1969 season.



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