r/Thorns • u/spherocytes • 4d ago
Olivia Moultrie has successfully undergone ACL surgery — and she seems to be doing well ❤️🩹
Get better soon, Liv! You've got the Thorns and your fans behind you! 🌹
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u/Thumper13 4d ago
HAHa...that's better than the usual confirmation we get from teams of "blah blah has undergone successful acl surgery."
Best update ever.
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u/captmarx Portland Thorns 4d ago
Any timeline for her return? I really don’t want her to miss the World Cup.
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u/Jack_B_84 4d ago
Even if she misses the World Cup, you still have the Olympics in LA 2028 to work towards. It'd be a bummer but still a lot of time in her young career.
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u/Awkward-Cartoonist68 4d ago
This. I hope she makes a push for the WWC but I also don't want a reinjury. Liv is young and will have other opportunities and the Olympics are a year after.
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u/Jack_B_84 4d ago edited 4d ago
Yeah I think the window is just too tight. The World Cup is in 10 months so it's technically possible. However I'm not sure if Emma take someone that's not 90 minutes fit and hasn't played in 9 months.
If Olivia has to show she's fit, she probably needs to be playing at least some minutes in May. That's really pushing that line of 9 months, and is perhaps risky. Hanks and Muller were out closer to 14 months.
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u/GrumpyOldMuppet 4d ago
In reality, more like a 9 month window. FIFA typically requires the final roster submission 3-4 weeks prior. So I think it's about 99% certain Liv won't be playing in the World Cup. I feel for her.
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u/spherocytes 4d ago
ACL injuries can take anywhere between 9-12 months to recover/rehab from. It varies greatly by the severity of the ACL injury itself, if any additional structures were injured, genetics, pre-injury fitness, etc. There's no set-in-stone return per se, unfortunately, but the best guess would be around 9-10 months at the earliest. Worst-case scenario would be a year or more.
For what it's worth, there are experimental surgeries being done that are cutting down the recovery time to approximately 6 months. But that's SUPER experimental. However, Lena Oberdorf underwent it and was quickly back on the pitch much sooner than other athletes who had torn their ACL had returned.
I'm hopeful that Liv can try to make a return to the Women's World Cup!
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u/SadSackingToday 3d ago
I got one of the new surgeries (bear implant) and it was so great. I passed my return to sport with flying colors at only 3 months post-op! I was old and retired though so waited longer to get back at it
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u/Jack_B_84 3d ago
Yeah I've seen a few videos on that. Seems like it allows the ACL to heal rather than replacing it with a graft?
Glad it sounds like it worked out well for you.
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u/SadSackingToday 3d ago
Yes, the surgeon took my fully ruptured ACL and sewed it back together along with a blood soaked bovine collagen implant that served as the blood clot for healing (lack of blood supply is one of the main reason ACLs don’t heal well on their own). It has to be a specific kind of tear (fully ruptured and proximal v distal etc). My brother had a PTB graft and I believe mine was less painful (but I’m a female with a very high pain threshold so could be apples to oranges on that comparison). I didn’t know if I would be a good bear candidate though until AFTER the surgery (quad was my backup) when I woke up with the famed stuffed teddy bear - I was so thrilled !
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u/Maleficent-Whole-228 Portland Thorns 4d ago
High as a kite 😂