Article: Collingwood's Matthew Scharenberg closing on return

Neil Appleby · Joined: 11 Feb 1998 Location: Melbourne

From The Age 19th Feb
Collingwood's prized but as-yet unseen young talent Matthew Scharenberg is virtually back in full training, just months after having his knee reconstructed.

Scharenberg joined in match simulation at Collingwood in the last fortnight, which was non-contact but still required him to twist and turn in play, and his knee held up well during the session. He will not play in the club's intra-club practice match at Olympic Park on Thursday night.

The No.6 pick in the 2013 draft did not play a senior game last year as he recovered from foot and toe issues which required surgery, but which the club was aware of when he was drafted. He returned to the VFL late in the season only to injure his knee in round 22.

It was assumed when he did his knee that he would miss almost the entirety of this season in recovery but that appears now unlikely to be the case, with the 191-centimetre running defender likely to return sooner.

The knee injury was a clean tear of the anterior cruciate ligament with no trauma to the surrounding joint and tendons. That meant it was a cleaner reconstruction than is normally the case.

"He is getting closer," Collingwood football manager Neil Balme said.

http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/collingwoods-matthew-scharenberg-closing-on-return-ahead-of-schedule-20150219-13iy2t.html

Dave The Man · Posted: Thu Feb 19, 2015 11:42 am

I was not expecting him to play in the Intra Club match but he would be doing the VFL Training before hand though.

I still think he could play a late VFL Practise Game

swoop42 · Posted: Thu Feb 19, 2015 12:05 pm

As far as ACL knee injuries go it looks like we had about the best outcome with Scharenberg in terms of damage received.

Now we just have to hope it can hold together over the next 12 months so his career can get back on track.

P.S-The upcoming Chinese new year is the year of the goat.

Surely a good omen for the year ahead.

mark (13 11 89 ) · Joined: 18 Feb 2015

Steady steady with schazza I reckon. We all can't wait to see him but steady steady.

RudeBoy · Joined: 28 Nov 2005

Member 7167 · Posted: Thu Feb 19, 2015 2:05 pm

I am more of a "year of the horse" kind of person.

All the same why is the year of the goat relevant to his recovery?

E · Joined: 05 May 2010

shhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

simon tonna · Joined: 24 Oct 2013 Location: carindale

can't wait for year of theSwan

sheish

gurugeoff · Joined: 09 Oct 2013

well that is good news. I would say how is it possible, but the article refers to a clean tear in the first place. Still, no need to rush him in.

Pies2016 · Joined: 12 Sep 2014

Without sounding like a smarta**e, the theory behind a quick recovery is that because there was no trauma to the surrounding tissue and tendons, the surrounding area can escalate the healing process because it hasnt been compromised. Healthy tissue helps to supply blood flow to the area. It isnt unusual these days for an ACL rehab to be complete within 10 months if there are absolutely no complications. The hard part is to complete a rehab without any accompanying issues but it is something that sports science continues to improve upon. This is probably the case with Sharenberg.... so far.

gurugeoff · Joined: 09 Oct 2013

okay, thanks

but aren't we less than six months at the moment? which is well short of 10.

Jezza · 2023 PREMIERS! Joined: 06 Sep 2010 Location: Ponsford End

Great news about Scharenberg and the fact that he may still play some football in 2015 albeit in the VFL for the whole year most likely!

His progress in training has been good from all the reports I've gathered so far in the off-season.

Pies2016 · Joined: 12 Sep 2014

Yep, about 6 months in but he hasnt played yet. Could still be a couple months away. Still a good recovery and being young helps too. If my memory serves correctly, Libba senior came back after 16 weeks from an ACL injury which is still talked about as a record in AFL. On the flip side, you will hear of ACL ruptures that are akin to a car wreck. They are the bad ones and can take almost two years for a full recovery. Thats where the surrounding tissue is also badly damaged, so no blood flow gets to the ACL tear until the surrounding tissue is healed first.
Sharenberg is obviously a good healer, undertaking good rehab with the surrounding tissue in good shape. The perfect storm for a comeback ahead of 12 months ..... so far.

stui magpie · Posted: Thu Feb 19, 2015 9:09 pm

Tony Liberatore came back 18 weeks after ACL surgery.

The 12 month time frame is more custom and practice than need. No surgeon wants to see his patient re-rupture the repaired knee, so they are ultra conservative with the recovery time.

Brown26 · Posted: Thu Feb 19, 2015 9:31 pm

He'll need 2 months of full contact training before he plays. There's a lot of steps in the recovery and you can accelerate the rehab quite a lot by just going through each step one or two weeks faster. But he'll still need full contact training for about 2 months before playing. Is he back at full training yet? He's looking great so I reckon he'll play VFL pretty soon and AFL maybe mid year.

One to trade in in the dream team!
- ben