Wayde’s knee op a success, but now comes months of rehab
JOHANNESBURG: A long and winding road to recovery lay ahead for Wayde van Niekerk after his operation to a damaged knee at the Steadman Clinic in Vail, Colorado, on Tuesday was declared a success.
Van Niekerk will be out of action for up to six months when he will be treated by some of the best minds in sports medicine.
The 400 metres world cham- pion went under the knife in Colorado where world-renowned complex knee specialist Dr Robert LaPrade oversaw the operation.
The star athlete’s agent Peet van Zyl said Van Niekerk faced a long recovery and rehabilitation before he would make his return to the track.
“There is no rush, he just needs to do the rehabilitation, and he will stay in Colorado for little over two weeks for the first set of intense rehab before he flies again,” Van Zyl said.
Van Niekerk will return to South Africa for a short stint before travelling to Doha, Qatar, to see Dr Louis Holtzhausen, who looked after Wayde for many years in Bloemfontein.
“He will do the rest of his rehab in Doha with Doc Louis for a good four to six weeks before he goes on honeymoon,” Van Zyl said.
“The operation had to happen, so we decided to get the wedding out of the way before going under the knife.”
It has been a whirlwind couple of days for Van Niekerk, who tied the knot with longtime girlfriend Chesney Campbell on Saturday before he jetted off the United States.
Van Niekerk sustained medial and lateral tears of the meniscus, as well as a torn anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in a celebrity tag match curtain-raiser to last month’s Rugby Championship Test between the Springboks and the All Blacks at Newlands in Cape Town.
The injury effectively rules him out for the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Australia, in April when he planned on racing both the 100 and 200m sprint distances and would also have been a crucial member of a 4x100m relay team.
“I was looking forward to competing in the 100 and 200m events in Gold Coast, and participating at the national championships in March, so this is unfortunate timing,” Van Niekerk said in a statement.
“But this is sport and these things happen. I trust that the team I have around me, including the medical professionals, will make this process as smooth as possible.”
Van Zyl said they had sent scans of Van Niekerk’s damaged knee to his renowned German doctor Hans-Wilhelm Mueller-Wohlfahrt, who also has Jamaican world 100 and 200m record holder Usain Bolt as a patient.
Mueller-Wohlfahrt referred Van Niekerk to LaPrade, who he believed was the best in his field and would give the South African the best chance of recovery.
“We sent him (Mueller-Wohlfahrt) the scans and he immediately said he could do the operation, but considering who Wayde is and his stature in world athletics, he needs the best in the world to operate on him,” Van Zyl said.
“We want to improve his chances of success, so he then phoned Dr LaPrade, who said come as soon as possible,” Van Niekerk’s agent concluded.