A torn anterior cruciate ligament is the injury that ends seasons. It happens in a moment, usually without anyone touching you, and it raises the same questions in everyone: what exactly has torn, do I need an operation, which graft, how long until I can play, and will I get arthritis.
This guide answers those questions in order, across five chapters. It is written to be read at your own pace, before or after your consultation, and it is honest about the numbers, including the ones that are not reassuring: how many people get back to their sport, and how often the ACL tears again.
Three things are worth saying at the start.
First, not every ACL tear needs surgery. The randomised trials are clear that a rehabilitation-first approach, with reconstruction for the knees that stay unstable, gives similar results to early surgery for many people. The decision depends on your knee, your sport and what you want from it, and that conversation comes before any date is set.
Second, the operation is the shorter part. A reconstruction takes about an hour and is usually a day procedure. The recovery takes nine months to a year, and what you do in those months decides the result more than anything that happens in theatre.
Third, the graft choice is made for you, not by habit. Hamstring, patellar tendon, quadriceps tendon and donor tendon each have a track record, and the chapter on the operation sets out what the evidence shows about each, including the donor-tendon grafts this practice uses often.
Start with the first chapter below, or jump to the one that matches where you are.
