00:00This is the Injury Report, presented by NYU Langone Health.
00:05Yankees fans, don't get mad at me because you know this already.
00:08Aaron Judge still isn't ready for baseball activity after they re-imaged that affected rib area following six plus weeks
00:16on the IL.
00:18So in today's Injury Report, let's bring in Dr. Craig Pilly, primary care sports medicine physician at NYU Langone,
00:25to see if we can get some sort of a timeline on when the captain could be back in action
00:31in the Bronx.
00:32Doc, appreciate you hopping on with us.
00:35Your area of expertise is the reason why we're bringing you in here because Yankees fans, people,
00:42everybody out there is just worried about how bad this guy's ribs are and the injury actually is
00:50because he said they shied away from the stationary bike and are limiting him to an incline treadmill for now.
00:59We're talking about six plus weeks, Doc.
01:02What does that tell you about how much that rib area has healed?
01:07So, you know, rib stress fractures are really tough injuries and can be very painful for athletes, right?
01:12And we know that this is not judge's first go around with this sort of injury.
01:16At the end of 2019, he had a similar injury with not so great an outcome, right?
01:21He had some complications from that.
01:23It was a persistent course.
01:24And really the only time he didn't miss, the only reason he didn't miss a lot of time was because
01:28of that COVID-shortened season following 2019.
01:32And so recurrent stress injuries in the same area can make these injuries more stingy, more persistent, and more difficult
01:38to deal with.
01:39They usually, at a baseline, necessitate like six weeks or so of just about complete rest, avoidance of pain,
01:47not doing anything that is particularly uncomfortable or painful for the athlete.
01:51And it wouldn't surprise me if this is a more deliberate rehab and recovery process for all parties involved,
01:56given his injury history and his importance for the Yankees going forward.
01:59I think where he's at right now tells us this injury needs some more time to cool off.
02:03He's not in uncharted territory yet, though.
02:06Depending on severity of injury for these rib stress fractures, data shows us a pretty wide range of acceptable return
02:13to sport,
02:14anywhere from six to seven weeks for early or mild injury,
02:18all the way to 12 to 14 weeks for kind of the more severe or complex injuries.
02:23All right.
02:24So, you know, we're not out of the realm of abnormal right now.
02:27Million dollar question here.
02:29Let's say a patient, normal patient comes into your office with the same injury as Aaron Judge.
02:35We'll call that patient arson judge.
02:37Is there a rehab and return to work or just normal life?
02:43Is that the same?
02:45Yeah, you know, look, it's similar in many ways for just about any sort of stress injury, right?
02:50The milestones, graded approach to rehabilitation are the same.
02:52We still need to see a patient comfortable with routine exercise, routine activities before advancing to more specific sport exercise.
03:01And I think the thing that's really important here is that in most of these stress fracture cases,
03:05oftentimes the overuse of a specific sport exercise is why this injury is happening in the first place.
03:12So in Judge's case, throwing a baseball, swinging a bat, diving across the outfield, right?
03:17All of those repetitive impacts can cause stress and overuse in this bone.
03:21And we see it a lot in rowers and golfers, other sort of repetitive athletes, too, that can get these
03:26injuries.
03:27And so really removing the offending agent for a period of time is the hallmark here, right?
03:31We need to allow the body to calm down and heal itself down before we reintroduce those activities.
03:37Please enjoy the future.
03:39You
Comments