Welcome back everybody. In this video we will take a look at Gabe Vilardi’s knee injury. How it happened and what it means going forward.
My name is Dr. Stefan Wilson and this channel all about exploring and explaining sports injuries.
On the replay we see Gabe Vilardi, number 13 for the Winnipeg Jets skate towards the puck in the corner where he is then engaged by number 46 of the Los Angeles Kings. Upon contact Vilardi’s left leg slides in front of him with his left knee straight while his right foot comes up off of the ice and then lands in an awkward position. When he lands we can see how his right foot is actually behind his body with his right foot turned to the outside in external rotation. So much so that when we follow the play the entire inside of his right foot then becomes flat on the ice. The amount of torque and rotation that is then translated through the inside of his right knee will be considerable. This places what is called a valgus stress from the lateral or outside part of his body which further stresses his knee. The primary tissue in his knee that is preventing this movement is his medial collateral ligament. Known as his MCL. Therefore, the entire movement of this play directly injures his MCL.
This is what the structure of your knee looks like. The big thigh bone is on top being your femur and your two shin bones are on the bottom with your tibia being the largest and your fibula is the smaller one beside it. The torque that we saw on Vilardi’s knee will directly stress this ligament right here, his medial collateral. This tissue prevents the lateral or side to side movement. Of course on the other side is the lateral collateral ligament and then on the inside of the joint capsule you have the anterior and posterior cruciate ligaments. Cruciate of course means cross in Latin.
Gabe Vilardi did indeed suffer a sprain to his right medial collateral ligament.
I am aware that on some NHL online forums there is discussion about whether this is a significant enough injury that should legitimately keep Vilardi out of the lineup. In my opinion, yes, absolutely, and let me explain why. Your MCL is designed to protect your knee from side to side movement. So when recovery occurs after an injury like this, all the movement for rehab exercises, all these exercises and movements will occur in a forward linear motion. In a controlled forward linear motion without side to side movement, this is the safest motion for your knee because it does not directly stress the MCL. But to say that Vilardi should be able to simply return to play without much issue is not really accurate because when you skate you have to dig your skate blade into the ice in order to propel yourself forward. And in order to dig the toe of your skate blade in to the ice, you have to slightly point your toe outwards which then places your foot in an externally rotated position which would then of course recreate the mechanism of injury. Over and over and over again, every time he pushes off with his right skate he would be irritating his right MCL.
Vilardi is listed as being out of action for 4-6 weeks and this seems perfectly reasonable to me. A skating friendly brace will also likely be used once he returns to gameplay in order to further protect his knee.
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