CONNOR MCDAVID Injury – Dr. Wilson reacts

UPDATE: Connor McDavid suffered an upper body injury last night and is expected to be out of the lineup for 1-2 weeks. (Possible hip or abdominal oblique injury).

Welcome back everyone, and thank-you for tuning in. In this video we will take a look at the video footage and review the available updates for Connor McDavid’s injury that he suffered Saturday night against the Winnipeg Jets. We will also relate the available information to the relevant anatomy.

My name is Dr. Stefan Wilson and this channel is designed for the edutainment of sports injuries.

On Saturday night the Edmonton Oilers played the Winnipeg Jets in a game that saw Connor McDavid playing 20:48 of ice time. It was not until the later stages of the 3rd period did McDavid show sign of injury. He did not play in the last few minutes of the 3rd period and he also did not play at all in the overtime period. This is uncharacteristic of McDavid so something must be up. McDavid was caught on camera skating towards his own bench favoring his left side. Following the game, Oilers coach Jay Woodcroft said in the press conference that McDavid’s injury, “Appeared to be muscular”. Now this statement is rather vague, but it does support the fact that there is no discernable one single traumatic event that we can pinpoint McDavid’s injury to and also the fact that he had already played in the majority of the hockey game. We can though correlate his supposed Muscular Appearance of injury with a highlight from Thursday nights game between the Oilers and Philadelphia Flyers. In that game here we can see how number 91 of the Edmonton Oilers, Evander Kane falls. And while falling, the side of his head and helmet make contact with the front of McDavid’s hip area which then forces his left leg backwards. If you find sports and injuries interesting, please like and subscribe to support this channel.

So if we breakdown the available replay here we can see in detail how Kane’s helmet does make impact with McDavid’s left hip area. This forces McDavid’s hip joint backwards into extension and also pulls his left leg across his body behind him into adduction. Anytime you forcefully put your hip and leg into this position it will inevitably affect the muscles and connective tissue in the front of the hip, the leg and the abdominal oblique muscles. Here on the anatomy screen we can see the specific muscles on the front of the hip and leg area. These muscles are designed to bring your hip into flexion and in front of your body. So if you take the muscle into the opposite direction and even perhaps take it beyond its normal physiological range of motion, yeah it doesn’t like that. You will stretch and even tear muscles fibers which then make it difficult to repeatedly and forcibly contract and use those muscles. Which results in a strain or possibly even a tear. Also consider that Kane’s helmet strikes McDavid in that front hip area which can also leave some bruising and a contusion. Couple that with a strain or tear of the muscle and that will lead to poor muscle performance such as explosiveness and stamina and pain.

Other injuries to this area are certainly possible such a bone bruise or joint sprain and hopefully not as severe as any labral cartilage damage to his hip. When there is more information available and an update on his injury I will post it in the description. Thank-you for watching.