Medical Questions » Sports Questions » Question No. 943
| Question: | My son has just started football, and I am very worried about him. Why do so many footballers need knee operations? |
| Answer: | The knee joint is the same as a finger joint, it is designed to move in only two directions, backwards and forwards.
Inside the knee, there are cartilages that form a deep cup on the top of the tibia (the bone in the calf) for the rounded end of the femur (the bone in the thigh) to move in.
When playing body contact sports such as football, the knee may be forced in abnormal positions or twisted. When this happens, the cartilages inside the knee tear. Because these tissues have a very poor blood supply, they heal poorly if at all.
If left torn they cause pain and limitation of knee movement, so an operation is performed to remove all or part of the cartilage, and the knee can move freely again, but is not as stable long term.
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