Is Kawhi Leonard still injured?
- jonhuiphysio
- Jul 19, 2018
- 3 min read
A Physiotherapist's perspective: Kawhi's mysterious knee injury of 2017-18. Post-trade analysis.
Breaking News: If you haven't already heard, there was a HUGE blockbuster trade yesterday involving the Toronto Raptors and San Antonio Spurs. Details here. As if we needed any more surprises this NBA offseason, right?
As a Physiotherapist, and a basketball / Raptors fan, my immediate concern was for Kawhi's Right knee.
The History: Between rumours of discontentment with the organization (and how they handled his injury situation) and spats with teammates urging him to return, Kawhi played a total of only 9 games in the 2017-18 Spur's season and was a huge disappointment. Time and time again, teammates and even Coach Popovich expressed their frustration with the rehabilitation progress. ESPN has since dubbed Kawhi's 2017-18 season as "Leonard's Lost Year".
A detailed injury history by SI.com can be found here. In summary, Kawhi was diagnosed with right quadriceps tendinopathy (reportedly) by his team doctors in September 2017 and missed a big chunk of the early NBA season. Upon medical clearance, Kawhi began to play, cautiously and with minutes restrictions, in December 2017. Finally in January 2018, Kawhi and the Spurs announced that he had set backs in his rehabilitation and that he would be out indefinitely.
So what exactly is Quadriceps Tendinopathy? Tendinopathy, in broad strokes, is typically an overuse condition of the tendons in the body (tendons attach muscles to bones). You can also see it sometimes termed as 'tendonitis' when it involves inflammation, or 'tendinosis' when there is tendon degeneration. In Kawhi's case, the quadriceps are a group of muscles that attach to the knee cap (patella) and enable the knee to straighten or extend. With rest, proper physiotherapy, and possibly other medical procedures (e.g. PRP), recovery should be expected in 6-12 weeks (depending on severity and other factors).
My Perspective: This is pure speculation, but I certainly think that there is more to this story than just tendinopathy. With any condition that involves pain, we, as primary healthcare providers, also expect a mental component. We know from research that a patient's mentality could influence how they recover. For example, the paper that I cite here looks into how how strongly depression is correlated with chronic pain. Chronic pain, often defined as pain lasting longer than 12 weeks, is a real issue and might even change brain and nervous system structure. Could stress from emotional distress, distrust, and ulterior motives play a part in inhibiting Kawhi's recovery? I think so.
There are definitely trust issues between the Spur's camp and Kawhi's camp as evidenced by:
Kawhi's request for a 2nd opinion from a different orthopaedic surgeon
Players-only meetings where Tony Parker is to have allegedly said to Kawhi that his own injury (a ruptured quadriceps tendon) was '100 times worse'
Other players trying to persuade him to return
Reports suggesting that Kawhi was 'faking' his injury to leverage a deal with a larger market team like Los Angeles.
This Kawhi Leonard injury saga is a good lesson to all of us. If a professional athlete (with the most robust medical and rehabilitation staff) is susceptible to chronic pain, we all are. The question is really, how do we deal with it? This is a great topic for another post.
Hopefully a change in environment will benefit Kawhi and that the 2014 Final's MVP will be able to live up to his full potential with the Raptors. If Kawhi is the Kawhi Leonard of previous years, I think the Raptors have the best player in the East and easily win this trade. But, I do think that there is some risk here. What do you guys think? Book with me online here.
Thanks for reading! Leave me your thoughts below or shoot me an email.