November 19, 2008
Jason's knee
Jason with his dad at the airport.
Hi everyone. It's Jason Davidson writing to you from Melbourne, Australia. I have been back in Melbourne since Thursday November, 6, 2008 for a knee operation. I flew out of Japan on the Wednesday before and arrived into Melbourne on the following morning. I went straight from the airport to a private hospital and that afternoon I underwent surgery on my right knee.
My injury happened the previous week during training when I tried to dribble my opponent. My boot stuck into the ground with my full weight on my knee and experienced a crunch when I turned. I knew immediately something was wrong as I twisted my knee. Usually I run out the pain, but this time I knew instantly it was a lot more serious as the pain persisted and it became unbearable.
I have had a niggling knee problem for a while and my coaches and doctor were aware of it. So when I fronted them with this new injury and explained what had happened they immediately knew I had done something more serious to it as well.
Once I arrived at the hospital I was introduced to knee specialist Mr David Young who wanted to see the MRI scans taken from Japan. I was told that I had seriously torn and damaged my internal meniscus (cartilage in the knee) which needed surgery straight away.The operation went for an hour and I had to stay in hospital recovering for a week. Mr Young has told me that the surgery went smoothly and he removed my cartilage and also explained that I was required to stay on crutches and have no weight on my knee for another 3 weeks and then start my rehabilitation for another 6 to 8 weeks before seeing him again.
Hopefully I can get back into the same peak condition as I was in before this injury occurred within that time. My father chose to have my operation in Melbourne with Mr Young, who is the National Football Team and Australian Olympic Team surgeon and he has also operated on both my father's knee's in the past. He knows my and our family history and we wanted Mr Young do the operation as we feel he is one of the best knee surgeons in Australia. Another reason for having the operation here in Melbourne is that he offered to operate straight away and I have my family supporting me during this difficult time and my rehabilitation would be less stressful.
I am not stepping on the leg at the moment but my knee feels very weak and strange. My rehabilitation will require swimming, exercises and build up to walking to running and a lot of weight training to build the muscle tissue around my knee over time. I expect to be well and truly ready to return in the new year which is what Mr Young has predicted if all goes well.
I am so frustrated now that I am not playing and training now, as it is a huge part of my life style in Tokyo, but I also understand that injuries are part of the game and to keep focussed and positive for when I return on the field, the most important thing now is to have a proper rehabilitation program in place and work hard on it.
I have also sent some photo's of me arriving in Melbourne with my dad and some shots of me in hospital before and after the operation as well as some pic's of my knee!!
Jason Davidson
Jason post-operation.
Jason's knee after the surgery.