Mental Recovery from an ACL Injury

Gustavo Olguin, Opinion Editor • November 6, 2013

Sophomore goalkeeper Alexis Carrillo intercepts the ball and prevents it from entering the goal while doing a soccer drill during practice. She torn her ACL last season and is getting better as the season goes on.

Athletes such as Adrian Peterson, Robert Griffin the third and Mariano Rivera have made ACL injuries seem like they are not as devastating as before. However the mental aspect of coming back from for an injury like that isn’t usually considered.

According the the Orthopedic Surgery Department of UC San Francisco, ACL injury has an annual incidence of more than 200,000 cases with ~100,000 of these knees reconstructed annually3. The majority of ACL injuries (~70%4) occur while playing agility sports, and the most often reported sports are basketball, soccer, skiing, and football. An estimated 70% of ACL injuries are sustained through non-contact mechanisms, while the remaining 30% result from direct contact.

All of these injuries need to go through a physical and mental recovery that will take months to fully recovery. The mental aspect doesn’t get a lot of recognition, but it is definitely there.

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About the Contributor

Gustavo Olguin, Managing Editor

My name Gustavo Olguin and I am currently the managing editor at Talonmarks at Cerritos College. Interested in sports and working in front of the camera as a reporter. I'm majoring in journalism and transferring in the Fall of 2014. This is my last semester with Talon Marks and Cerritos College, so if you don't know my face by now, I have failed you.