Ben Hart Update

[The Smith Revolution]

Hi guys. I have heard from a semi reliable source (is there ever a fully reliable source?), and I know this bloke knows Hart personally, that he is virtually stuffed. He needs an operation on his hammy (which would take 18 months to recover), so he is giving it one last crack as is. And we know where he is at currently.

Not good huh, cos the bloke is a champion footballer.

 

[Stiffy_18]

I thought you couldn't operate in his condition

He has calcification in his hammy, in other words he has bone formation somewhere deeper in his hammy. Could they possibly operate that and not damage muscle fibers permanantly?????

Someone out there with mediacal knowledge can give us a bit more details.

 

[The Smith Revolution]

Hey, my bloke is a footballer, so the finer details may be a bit blurry (!!!!), but he was sober and pretty sure of the total scenario. But my post is worthy of full consideration, given the ramifications. Cheers

 

[Stiffy_18]

No mate not knocking you or degraging your post I genuinely am asking the question if in fact its possible because I think Hart might have said that you can't operate on it but don't quote me on that.

Just asking if someone out there is more educated on the issue than I am

 

[outback jack]

i dont think, you could operate but they did say it takes 18 months to heal or dissolve, so basically he has to manage it for the rest of his career. What it does highlight is the extremely poor way it was handled by the medico's allowing him to injure it repeatedly, so many times that eventually this happened

 

[Stiffy_18]

i dont think, you could operate but they did say it takes 18 months to heal or dissolve

Thats my recollection as well but not sure about how long it takes for it to dissolve. But my recolection is that it couldn't be operated on so he is on something that is apparently supposed to dissolve it in time.

 

[- PC -]

i dont think, you could operate but they did say it takes 18 months to heal or dissolve, so basically he has to manage it for the rest of his career. What it does highlight is the extremely poor way it was handled by the medico's allowing him to injure it repeatedly, so many times that eventually this happened

jack why the negativity

The medicos assess the injury..its the coaching staff who make the decision to play him. Recommended resting time for a hamstring is 3 weeks , IIRC he was rested for 3 weeks and then did it again. It was his first year for bad hamstring problems. Yes there may have been an underlying issue but its like a piece of string. You can only test the strength under pressure , no matter what medicos might think or believe.


And smith your posts worthiness may be determined by other people when more info comes along....for mine I would like if you cn to ask your source if ben will limp along for 2005 and then retire?

 

[- PC -]

Please understand I have no medical knowledge so whats posted is gleaned from other sites

http://www.ausport.gov.au/fulltext/1999/iocwc/abs031b.htm

An additional sign of the damage from eccentric exercise is a shift in the muscles length-tension relationship to longer muscle lengths, immediately post exercise (Jones et al., 1997). This is a report of a series of experiments testing healthy adults before and after eccentrically exercising their hamstring muscles using a customised exercise regime, with the intention of looking for typical signs of muscle damage. The length tension relation was determined using isokinetic dynamometry. Results suggest that these length-tension curves provide reliable and reproducible indicators of muscle damage. Work is underway to investigate training effects with repeated eccentric exercise.

It is our hypothesis that the local damage from unaccustomed eccentric exercise leaves the muscle vulnerable to more severe injury, such as that which is encountered so frequently in intermittent team sports such as Australian Rules Football. Our preliminary findings suggest that eccentric exercise training may be helpful in reducing hamstring injury rates.


I would assume the Crows medical staff are aware of this.

http://www.time-to-run.com/injuries/hamstring/

Picture it... you're gliding up your favourite long hill, breathing well, legs feeling strong. You reach the top, and happily you start running downhill. Everything is perfect: it is a beautiful morning, that hill has never felt easier, and you are even sweating less than usual. Suddenly it all changes in one simple step. You feel a sharp pulling pain in the back of your thigh, and you are reduced to a hobble - all the way home. While you do contemplate throwing your running shoes away, you are also puzzled. You can't think of anything you have done incorrectly to cause this injury. You have been increasing your training gradually, without doing any major speed or hill sessions. You have even been stretching a bit, and certainly felt no niggling pain or stiffness in the muscle up until now. Then you remember that this hamstring gave you problems last year, and the year before, also without warning.


Mechanism of injury - Hamstring

Musculoskeletal imbalances
Any breakdown in the effective function of the legs and pelvis during running may predispose to injury. Examples include:


postural changes due to muscle tightness
lumbar or sacro-iliac joint stiffness
poor co-ordination of movement or early fatigue associated with muscle weakness
leg length discrepancy (LLD) which will affect pelvic motion and stride length. Note: LLD < 1.5 cm is usually not significant
prolonged or delayed pronation or supination of the foot, which will alter the function of the leg and pelvis during the running cycle

Inappropriate training
"Inappropriate" comprises all the factors that may affect your body's ability to adapt to the varied stresses of running. Factors include:

excessive mileage
rapid increase in mileage
inadequate warm-up and cool-down
poor stretching
cambered running surfaces
worn shoes or orthotics
Incomplete rehabilitation
As runners, we are always eager to get back on the road as soon as possible. If an injury is not properly treated, or if you do not achieve your pre-injury levels of strength, endurance and flexibility, the risk of re-injury is increased. Effective rehabilitation (which means putting in the time with the physio, or at the gym) will allow you to get back on the road and stay there.


And as highly paid sportsmen we are also eager to get back on the money maker

Treatment

http://www.time-to-run.com/injuries/hamstring/treatment.htm

return to running gradually
full recovery is usually between three to six weeks

Medical treatment

physiotherapy. Soft tissue massage, dry needling (acupuncture), and eletrotherapy modalities will speed up the rate of recovery from a hamstring injury. Progressive stretching and strengthening of the hamstrings will enhance the recovery process
orthotist or podiatrist for custom-made orthotics to control overpronation
in the case of severe strains, surgery is usually not indicated. The use of crutches, as well as a supportive brace may be necessary for pain relief

Heres one possible area of concern for those who hit the weights room.

loss of the normal quadriceps/hamstring ratio. Excessive quadriceps development may produce an abnormal force in the hamstrings, particularly when there is a loss of co-ordination due to fatigue. This is more of a problem in athletes who mix cycling with running (e.g. triathletes). Cycling results in increased quadriceps development which may predispose the athlete to hamstring injuries, particularly when running. There may also be a pre-existing weakness of the hamstrings. The imbalance in the ratio of strength between the quadriceps and hamstrings must be corrected to avoid recurrent injury. Isokinetic strength testing and an effective rehabilitation programme are essential


Yet heres a list of alternate exercises
'
Alternative exercises


swimming
pool running
cycling (in low gear)

So cycling increases your quads which throws the ratio out yet one of the alternates is cycling

Anyway hope that gives another insight into it all
.

 

[outback jack]

jack why the negativity

The medicos assess the injury..its the coaching staff who make the decision to play him. Recommended resting time for a hamstring is 3 weeks , IIRC he was rested for 3 weeks and then did it again. It was his first year for bad hamstring problems. Yes there may have been an underlying issue but its like a piece of string. You can only test the strength under pressure , no matter what medicos might think or believe.


And smith your posts worthiness may be determined by other people when more info comes along....for mine I would like if you cn to ask your source if ben will limp along for 2005 and then retire?

I think he pinged it at least 3 times maybe 4 and multiple times while on the comeback, so thats hardly good management. After the second time u'd thought they would have wrapped him in wool, a bit like buckley was, not that it seemed to help him a lot. It was probably pressure from ayres and craig to be available due to our lack of depth that did it.

 

[mr snip]

Ben hart was on SEN this morning.
The problem being 4-5 areas of 1-2cm calcification in his hamstring which has left everyone puzzled in its management as no one has seen it before
Progressing slowly hopes to have a hit out a week prior to the !st round with local team all being well.
I'd have to stay he didn't sound overly confident

asked about up coming juniors and where the improvement will come from, no mention of the jericho's reilly's but did talk aboutMeeson van berlo and Maric who he said is 96kg already at 18

 

[Mad Dog]

Ben hart was on SEN this morning.
The problem being 4-5 areas of 1-2cm calcification in his hamstring which has left everyone puzzled in its management as no one has seen it before
Progressing slowly hopes to have a hit out a week prior to the !st round with local team all being well.
I'd have to stay he didn't sound overly confident

asked about up coming juniors and where the improvement will come from, no mention of the jericho's reilly's but did talk aboutMeeson van berlo and Maric who he said is 96kg already at 18

I got this horrible feeling about Benny's season.........

 

[noddy]

I got this horrible feeling about Benny's season.........

You are not alone.

 

[Crowked]

I got this horrible feeling about Benny's season.........

I'm getting that feeling about his career, its not looking good at all.

 

[mymansyd]

It's pretty obvious the AFC has to start R1 with a mindset that Benny is gone (I'm pretty sure they'd already be doing that).

Someone's gonna' have to be groomed as that midsize defender who can play on smalls or talls. Seems that Bassett/Begley may well share that role this year.

Any match Benny plays from here on in should be treated as a bonus. I just hope he can scrape up to 300 games by the end of next season. What a shame, I felt certain that he would play 400.

 

[Mong]

Wow. That's a shame if true. He has avoided injury so well for his whole career and looked certain to reach 300 games. Now, more than a full season of games away from 300 it looks like he never will.

 

[Mad Dog]

It's pretty obvious the AFC has to start R1 with a mindset that Benny is gone (I'm pretty sure they'd already be doing that).

Someone's gonna' have to be groomed as that midsize defender who can play on smalls or talls. Seems that Bassett/Begley may well share that role this year.

Any match Benny plays from here on in should be treated as a bonus. I just hope he can scrape up to 300 games by the end of next season. What a shame, I felt certain that he would play 400.

good thing we promoted Smith then

 

[Stiffy_18]

^^^^^^

 

[Truck Rutten]

Ben hart was on SEN this morning.
The problem being 4-5 areas of 1-2cm calcification in his hamstring which has left everyone puzzled in its management as no one has seen it before
Progressing slowly hopes to have a hit out a week prior to the !st round with local team all being well.
I'd have to stay he didn't sound overly confident

In best George Costanza voice "never seen this before???"........that can only be a bad thing.

How is it possible for a guy to be so durable over such a long period of time, and then suddenly develop cardboard hamstrings?

If the worst happens, and he is put on the long term injury list, who do we promote?

 

[Crowked]

If the worst happens, and he is put on the long term injury list, who do we promote?

Hinge seems to be popular ATM. A real hard nut, so theyre saying. He might get a chance to make a claim this week. It will be interesting.

 

[Markthirtytwo]

In best George Costanza voice "never seen this before???"........that can only be a bad thing.

How is it possible for a guy to be so durable over such a long period of time, and then suddenly develop cardboard hamstrings?

If the worst happens, and he is put on the long term injury list, who do we promote?

Mad Dog beat me to it.

 

[Markthirtytwo]

Steven Schwerdt was on AA a day or so back saying that he thought he was ok to play for North Adelaide the week before Rd1. Not sure if thats the club doctrine or playing it straight.

 

[Blue Red and Gold]

If the worst happens, and he is put on the long term injury list, who do we promote?

I think Hinge is the obvious one at the moment.
However I would be very careful in doing this as he is still very raw having mainly just playing school footy.
I cant remember who said it when this question came up a little while ago but they made a very vaild point in saying he is a very physical player and this worked well in school footy but playing his style of footy at AFL level with a body like his could just mean endless injuries.

I really like Hinge, I think he will add alot but I would be cautious in promoting him too early.

 

[Cove Cobra]

"postural changes due to muscle tightness
lumbar or sacro-iliac joint stiffness
poor co-ordination of movement or early fatigue associated with muscle weakness
leg length discrepancy (LLD) which will affect pelvic motion and stride length. Note: LLD < 1.5 cm is usually not significant
prolonged or delayed pronation or supination of the foot, which will alter the function of the leg and pelvis during the running cycle"
{Direct quotation from PerthCrow's Post}

Magnificent post PerthCrow!

Disc herniations and ruptures in the lower region of the back can also cause the same problems.

C.C.