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Limited role next for sore Claxton

DrReality

By DrReality
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DrReality

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The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Published on: 11/17/06

Speedy Claxton has watched enough basketball the past two months to last him a lifetime.

He missed five weeks, including all but a week of training camp, with a broken finger. He missed the Hawks' past three games with soreness in his left knee.

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But he'll be back against Miami on Saturday night at Philips Arena. Hawks coach Mike Woodson said he'll play Claxton but isn't sure how many minutes.

It doesn't matter to Claxton. He just wants back in on the live action.

"This has been tough, real tough," Claxton said of medical hiatus after the Hawks finished practice Thursday. "They did a different kind of MRI [on his knee], where they put the die in it so they can take a really good look at it. And they didn't find anything structurally wrong with my knee.

"It was just weak. I didn't have much strength in it. The past week I've just been trying to lift off of it. It's still not 100 percent. I'd say it's about 70 percent. But I can help my team at 70 percent. And hopefully I won't have to sit out anymore this year."

Woodson's not taking any chances. That's why he said he'll see how Claxton responds to limited minutes before pushing the issue.

"We'll try and get his feet wet a little but not in a long period of time. We're going to try and use him in short bursts and let him work his way back gradually."

Childress sits again with sore left foot

Claxton was joined on the Hawks' walking wounded list Thursday by reserve swingman Josh Childress, who is nursing a sore left foot that began bothering him late in Tuesday night's loss to Milwaukee at Philips Arena.

Childress was also held out of Wednesday's practice. But Woodson said he's hopeful Childress will be able to play against the Heat. If not, the Hawks would be without his 13.3 points, 6.4 rebounds and fantastic energy.

"After the game we got it X-rayed and it was negative," Childress said. "I think I sprained a ligament or something. I can walk on it, but it's sore. I'm just trying to be careful with it right now, because I fractured my foot in college and this was a similar pain."

Tyronn Lue sat out Thursday. too, but Woodson said it was simply to give the veteran point guard a well-earned rest after his 39-minute outing against the Bucks.

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Guest Walter

Guest Walter

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"This has been tough, real tough," Claxton said of medical hiatus after the Hawks finished practice Thursday. "They did a different kind of MRI [on his knee], where they put the die in it so they can take a really good look at it. And they didn't find anything structurally wrong with my knee.

"It was just weak. I didn't have much strength in it. The past week I've just been trying to lift off of it. It's still not 100 percent. I'd say it's about 70 percent. But I can help my team at 70 percent. And hopefully I won't have to sit out anymore this year."

Given nothing is "structurally wrong" and the description of "weak" I'm thinking patello-femoral dysfunction (related to cømmonly cited runner's and jumper's knee for athletes). He probably did alot of stationary cycling for conditioning (less jarring on the hand fracture early) and continued that throughout his rehab. That repetitive motion is notorious for tightening up Illiotibial bands (fibrous structure from glute and other muscles extending past the knee on outside of knee) and Vastus Lateralis (outside quad muscle). Which led to lateral tracking and tilting of the patella in the groove of the femur. Which elongates the Vastus Medialus Oblique (VMO) and puts the whole quad at a mechanical disadvantage and makes it "passively insufficient". He'd still be playing I presume if "weak" were the only complaint so I wonder where his pain is located.

Get the man some foot orthotics/arch supports to address a likely less than ideal Q-angle (to what degree you are knock-kneed or bow-legged) at the knee to begin with, as this (correctly done) helps resolve >50% of peri-patellar knee pain per a study in the '90s, tape his knee cap during rehab (see tennis players for taping examples), train the VMO with closed chain eccentric exercise, IT-band stretching, ice, maybe a patellar tendon strap (not my preference), maybe rest, but honestly i'm sick and tired of reading about fragile Speedy.

This isn't rocket science or some mystery to be solved. It's cut and dry PT and it shouldn't be a problem if addressed remotely well.

OK, it could simply be called tendonitis (bursitis, arthritis, etc. would show on MRI), but it's all the same. I'd look feet first on this one though as you can get the quickest results with patellar tracking by working at the feet and once corrected get the right feedback to relax the IT band and strengthen the VMO with every step he takes.

W

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vdunkndunk Newbie

vdunkndunk

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This isn't rocket science or some mystery to be solved.

It may not be rocket science, but it sounds suspicioulsy like some kind of science or other, and therefore my brain refuses to process it.

Whatever the reason for his injury, though, my main question is whether Speedy is capable of remaining healthy long enough to help us out on a consistent basis.

I knew he was injury prone when we signed him, and so far he hasn't disappointed (which is to say, he has severely disappointed).

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Guest Walter

Guest Walter

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I thought Peter Rudulovic was the strength & conditioning coach?

My bad..I always remember his name..It is kinda cool..But Blase is the head trainer...so it all falls to him...lmao

I miss sports medicine. I work in acute care now for the time being but would jump at most any chance to work with athletes again. It really is a cut and dry case, even with the limited evidence we have. I fault the training staff some on this as keeping a player otherwise ready after a hand fracture is pretty d@mn easy stuff. I know it's Speedy and he seems very fragile, but...

W

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