KneeEd Insights

Top stories

Novak Djokovic: The Body That Was Already Ready

Eight and a half weeks after knee surgery, at 37, he beat a 21-year-old for Olympic gold. It was not a miracle.

Tony Hawk: The Femur That Wouldn't Be Rushed

He broke the strongest bone in his body at 53, skated again two weeks later, and learned the hard way that walking is not the same as healing.

Willis McGahee: A First-Round Bet on a Knee

On national-championship night his left knee came apart across three ligaments at once, and the cheapest, most valuable thing he did next was wait.

Sara Mardini And The Recovery That Refused To Be A Return

A swimmer's shoulder ended her racing career, so she gave the water a different job, and learned that redirection is its own kind of healing.

Adrian Peterson: In a Hurry to Heal

He tore two ligaments on Christmas Eve, had them rebuilt six days later, and started opening day eight and a half months on.

The Back Pain Nobody Can Name

In roughly nine cases out of ten, no scan and no examination will find the thing that hurts. That is not a failure of medicine. It is the finding.

Wayne Gretzky: The Back That Was Supposed to End Him

He herniated a disc in the one part of the spine nobody knew how to fix in an athlete, was told to think about retiring, and came back in four months to play six more seasons on a back he would manage for the rest of his career.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic: The Black Belt and the Rebuilt Knee

At 35, a torn anterior cruciate ligament was supposed to end it. He was back in roughly seven months, scored a 40-yard volley on his next club debut, and played until 41.

Virgil van Dijk: The Long Way Back

He tore the ACL in his right knee on a derby afternoon, rebuilt it through a London surgery, a Dubai winter, and a Melwood spring, and came back ten months and eighteen days later.

Venus Williams: The Opponent You Can't See

At the height of her career she was diagnosed with an incurable autoimmune disease, and had to learn to manage a body that fights itself.

Tommy John: One in a Hundred

In 1974 a pitcher tore the ligament that should have ended his career, and a surgeon tried something no one had ever done.

Simone Biles: No Idea Which Way Was Up

Jackie Chan: The Body That Keeps the Score

Tyson Fury: The Fight Nobody Saw

Longevity

Tom Brady: The Pliable Knee

He tore the ACL and MCL in his left knee in the first week of 2008, survived a staph infection that could have ended his career, and then spent the next fifteen years building a body-maintenance system obsessive enough to play elite football to forty-five.

Recovery

Wayde van Niekerk: The Long Road Back to a Record He Couldn't Reach

He ran 43.03 from lane eight in Rio, the fastest 400m ever run. A year later a charity rugby game took his ACL and both menisci.

Rossi: A Broken Leg in 41 Days

He broke his right tibia and fibula at over a hundred miles an hour, had a titanium rod driven through the bone, and was racing again before the cast would normally have come off.