Liam recovering on fast track?

[HooperScooper]

I’m not exactly saying anything too groundbreaking here but this is one of those situations where you have to err on the side of caution and think about the kid’s future. A one-off sprain isn’t anything - but bringing him back too soon and having something else go wrong could jeopardize his earning potential (and from a selfish perspective, it would also jeopardize our chance at recruiting elite talent in the future if other places can point to what happened to Liam and say that we don’t care about our athletes). When the medical staff says “he looks good” and the sentence ends right there without a “but”, we’re good to go.

Yeah I think they'll be conservative with this and not put him out there until he's past full clearance. Could it be that his agent and family are telling UConn they need to be very careful with McNeeley even if the team doctor says he's ready to play? I wouldn't blame them if that is going on.

 

[Hunt for 7]

Hoping this puts Xavier or Butler in play. That would be right at three weeks.

 

[imno1]

Eh, I'll take the other side. I've seen bad high ankle sprains where the patient can't even put weight on the leg for 10-12 days. So this is actually promising - though that doesn't necessarily mean quick. It still may be a month, but it's not one that looks like 2 months. IMO.

I thought it was somewhat encouraging when he returned to the bench without crutches.

 

[gsmooth]

I recall Clingan came back the home game against Creighton last year. Hurley is superstitious. See upcoming 1/18 home game vs Creighton.

I wish he was coming back against Creighton because that's a game where he will be sorely needed with the deep drop coverage Creighton likes to play. Being cautious and conservative I don't see him back until February.

Before the Nova game, I wanted to see UConn win 2 out of the 3 between @Nova, @ Georgetown, and home against Creighton, the latter being a must. I want UConn's home winning streak to continue throughout this year.

 

[UCLJ0211]

It depends if it’s one of those sprains that takes 6 months to feel normal or one of those ankle tweak type of sprains that’s mostly better in 2-3 weeks. Sounds like the latter, but who knows?

 

[Horatio]

 

[jibsey]

When he comes back is there a way to tape him so it doesn’t likely recurr?

 

[king conn]

I'm pretty sure at this point everyone has forgotten he sprained an ankle over July 4th weekend.

Since it happened when he went home to Texas, even Hurley didn't have clarity on it according to his quotes at the time.

Any sleuths out there able to find out which ankle that was?

 

[HooperScooper]

View attachment 106162

Not proven to help. It's why a lot of NBA players are wearing low cut sneakers these days.

 

[Doctor Hoop]

When he comes back is there a way to tape him so it doesn’t likely recurr?

Not really with a high ankle sprain. There's no way to completely eliminate rotational stress with tape only, one of the reasons high sprains take longer to return. Tape helps, but you've got to get a certain amount of healing to go with it.

 

[inWV]

The recovery times in the study below seem incredibly fast given the "4-6 weeks at least" time frame that has been thrown around for Liam. (For those who won't bother to click the link: The study looked at 20 football players who had high ankle sprains. The injuries varied in severity. The longest time to return to unrestricted activity observed was 30 days, and the mean time was 15.5 days.)

Time to Return to Play After High Ankle Sprains in Collegiate Football Players: A Prediction Model - PMC

Determining the severity of high ankle sprains in athletes and predicting the time that an athlete can return to unrestricted sport activities following this injury remain significant challenges. The objectives of this study were (1) to determine if ...

pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Any doctory people out there have any idea if there's reason to think Liam might fit into this range, or if there's something about his injury or the differences between football and basketball that make his recovery longer? If he takes as long as the slowest recoverer in the study, he'll be back by the Marquette game. Can I get my hopes up?

A lot of running backs get high ankle sprains. They may return to play after a few weeks, but they won’t get near fully healed until after the season.

 

[bendm]

Not proven to help. It's why a lot of NBA players are wearing low cut sneakers these days.

You’re telling me that decades of high tops was based on nothing but a hunch??

 

[TheHorde]

Two 10 minute epsom salt soaks per day with hot water to get the swelling out of it and aid the healing process, Liam.

 

[AntG168]

Hold him out as long as he needs. No need to rush back. I think we can keep the ship going for another week or 2. We need him for March

 

[husky429]

You’re telling me that decades of high tops was based on nothing but a hunch??

Yes. I still wear them because I like'em... but it's always been obvious if you paid attention they don't to anything to keep your ankle from rolling