Wayde took a big risk
NOT NATURAL: RUGBY IS A VERY DIFFERENT MOVEMENT TO TRACK RUNNING
Van Niekerk out for at least six months following surgery and the athlete has now commenced with his rehabilitation.
Wayde van Niekerk is not the first elite athlete to injure himself while trying out another code, and he won’t be the last, but local sports scientist Helen Bayne suggests it is best for professional athletes to avoid certain sports in order to focus on their career disciplines.
“I think it’s just a case of doing something you’re not used to, and exposing yourself to different types of loads than for what you’ve prepared,” Bayne, a sports scientist at the University of Pretoria, said yesterday.
It was revealed this week that Van Niekerk, the 400m world record-holder, would be sidelined for at least six months after injuring his knee while playing a celebrity touch rugby match, and he would miss next year’s Commonwealth Games.
For any athlete who focused on developing muscles to propel themselves forward, a sport which involved lateral movement could be as risky as participating in an extreme sport, from an injury perspective, according to Bayne.
As a sprinter was not required to sidestep on the track, Van Niekerk’s recovery from an ACL injury could be quicker than athletes who needed to move laterally, like rugby or football players.
Similar injuries, however, had ended athletes’ careers, and Bayne suggested it was not worth the risk.
“It’s not in your best interest to go outside what you’re focused on because if you’re involved in a sport that involves direction changes, for example, there’s a high risk of non-contact ACL injuries,” Bayne said.
“That’s just general statistics, that there is a higher risk of those injuries in those sports, so knowing that, you surely wouldn’t want to expose yourself to that just like you probably wouldn’t go downhill BMX riding or anything like that.”
Van Niekerk’s management team, meanwhile, confirmed this week his knee surgery had been successful and he had started the rehabilitation process.