Breanna's Achilles Injury: On The Up or Down?

[RockyMTblue2]

"Stewart suffered the injury when she landed on the foot of fellow WNBA star Brittney Griner, who was playing for Russia's UMMC Ekaterinburg, after attempting a jump shot late in the second quarter. " WNBA MVP Stewart tears Achilles in EuroLeague game

Literally dozens of news sources reported it this way. But that doesn't make it so.

According to Brittany Griner Stewie did it going up for the jump shot.

"When you watch the tape, you see the pain in her face already when she went up," Griner said. "She couldn’t even come down on it. She immediately went to the other leg (left) to come down. That kind of made me feel better, but I went to the hotel and apologized to her, my bad for being in that area.

"She said it's cool, it’s not you, it wasn’t your foot. I just checked on her and made sure she was in OK spirits as much as you could be after that. I texted her some after she got out of surgery. It just sucks that happened to her because not only is she missing WNBA, she’s missing another overseas season where we make the majority of our money."

Mercury center Brittney Griner felt like 'straight crap' after Breanna Stewart injury

PS. BG is great in this article and talks about her love for Phoenix, D's injury and the super-max salary concept.

An imbedded video of the incident in the article clearly supports this. Fool that I am I viewed it multiple times without seeing that it was Stewie's left foor that landed on Brit's ankle and her right ankle she grabbed!

How it happened matters in the debate about year round play and wear and tear. Wear the tear (or sever) occured in the tendon matters too, particularly for the recovery, but I've seen no report of that either.

Thanks to ken for pointing out the article.

 

[UcMiami]

How it happened matters in the debate about year round play and wear and tear. Wear the tear (or sever) occured in the tendon matters too, particularly for the recovery, but I've seen no report of that either.

Thanks to ken for pointing out the article.

Just to be clear Achilles and ACLs just snap - they are not typically 'wear and tear' injuries unless there is a pre existing anomaly in the bone structure of the joint. So they aren't really an issue of the year around nature of the sport. (It took one game of beach volley ball to do my ACL!) And as in this case most of them are not related to actual contact.

There are lots of issues related to wear and tear but this one doesn't seem to be that.

 

[RockyMTblue2]

I have a hard time figuring out the mechanics of her injury, but it doesn't matter. 'Tis what it is.

 

[boontonbomber]

I have a hard time figuring out the mechanics of her injury, but it doesn't matter. 'Tis what it is.

hyper contraction of the gastrocnemius.

 

[CTrefugee]

I haven't seen evidence that it is wear and tear from year round play that brings on injuries. If the evidence exists, I stand corrected. You would expect the number of injuries to be approximately proportional to the number of games played. If 30,000 minutes are played over ten years or over twenty years, would the total number of injuries change? I also note that the injury rate to former UCONN players is high because we have so many pros who get high minutes. I am looking for some wood to knock on before I say - UCONN players have been seeing a lot of wear and tear due to a short bench and I don't think we have had an unusual number of injuries. We had more serious injuries (acl's etc) when we had depth. (I do think that poorly conditioned athletes are more subject to injury - hasn't been a UCONN problem). knock wood, knock wood, knock wood, knock wood,