Player Watch #18: Alex Rance

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JAKLAUGHING

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Nov 20, 2008
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Vilnius
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TASMANIAN DEBILS!!!
He's well ahead in terms of muscle mass. The graft itself will weaken at about that point regardless of how well he's tracking.
I'm no Doctor and i reckon it's all about the graft connecting...healing...growing...in that case one would need to take notice of how previous op's have tracked best! I don't want Rance to play this year! He's a GOAT and i would like several more years play out of him not op's on his knee!
 
Nov 24, 2008
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He's well ahead in terms of muscle mass. The graft itself will weaken at about that point regardless of how well he's tracking.
It's not like these things are brought off the shelf, surely that's just an average? Does it differ for a hamstring graft as opposed to a quad graft? Is there a way to check the progress? Like a scan that can see whether it has fully taken? Thanks
 

Themanbun

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Apr 19, 2019
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It's not like these things are brought off the shelf, surely that's just an average? Does it differ for a hamstring graft as opposed to a quad graft? Is there a way to check the progress? Like a scan that can see whether it has fully taken? Thanks

The surgeons explained to me that we don't have the data because you could never get ethics clearance. The only way you could check the tensile strength of the graft would be to apply pressure to various patients to the point of breaking it at various points of the recovery, which no clearance committee would grant. A scan won't show the kind of stuff needed to assess its strength.

So they use reinjury rates at various points and their knowledge of tendon pathology to guesstimate when it's weak and when it starts to lay down its own collagen and strengthen. That's the only kind of data set and theory they have, so they can't get exacts, but tendon pathology indicates that it's yet to lay down its own collagen at this stage.

Far from an exact science so it's more just conservative guesstimation. How Alex feels though, and how his muscle recovery and move is feeling, has very little to do with the actual strength of the graft itself, which is the important thing.
 

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Roksman

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Feb 12, 2012
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Minimum time you can be on the LTI is eight weeks.
That aligns exactly with the last round - so he's technically be available for the first final.

Maybe they just wanted to remove all media speculation leading into the last few rounds? I'm not saying he's gonna play, but just removes the distraction either way I guess.
 

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