Meniscus+Tears

Meniscus tears are when you tear the cartilage that surrounds the kneecap, and protects the tibia, femur, and kneecap from rubbing against each other. If just a slight tear occurs, it will make your leg lock up when you are going through your various motions. If it locks up, it will be very painful to move especially pivoting such as when you swing, run or slide. Many minor tears are dealt with by surgery, where the hurt part is removed. It takes 4-6 weeks to return to playing for the meniscus to fully heal. If more severe tears occur, and a large chunk of the cartilage is removed, you can get severe damage such as arthritis, caused by bones rubbing together. Sometime, the meniscus is healed through stitches but it takes a longer time- like several months- to fully heal. This is better because it will keep all of the cartilage in the knee so it will be less likely to have any more extra damage done because of bones hitting each other. They don’t do this as often because it is harder for it to heal so it might not ever get repaired. Even sometimes, they wait to perform the surgery until after the season so the player plays, and isn’t as good, with a bad leg. This makes them change their swing, slow them down, and they wont be able to slide.

As you can see here, there is a diagram of how there could be a tear in the meniscus. It also shows that there is more than one way to tear the meniscus 

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