Should you play football again after tearing both Patella tendons?

New research suggests the answer could depend on your genetic make-up.

Tendon injury can be a serious thing, and the tearing of both Patella tendons may have major implications for your choice of ongoing sports activities.

The decision as to whether to resume playing football after Patella tendon tearing can be an extremely difficult one, with the sport you love on the one hand, and the risk of being incapacitated for many months on the other. It is therefore extremely important to be careful.

Thus far, establishing whether or not you can play football again has rightly been based on factors such as an assessment of your injury and medical history. But now, new genetic profile testing may be able to provide added insight into your best and safest ongoing strategy if you have been affected by Patella tendon injury.

Our genes dictate the biological processes in our bodies; for example the formation of muscle, cartilage and bone, the production and metabolism of muscle energy, as well as blood and tissue oxygenation. These processes are central to how we perform in sports and athletics.

Inherent within variations in DNA sequences are either genetic advantages that can be utilised, or genetic ‘barriers’ that could be targeted – with the right training and nutritional planning – to help achieve your best athletic performance.

New testing being pioneered in Greece by Dr Marios Kambouris, a Harvard geneticist, could help to identify the particular genetic factors that could influence your sports performance and have key implications in terms of your ongoing self-care and sports regimen.

People with certain kinds of genetic variants can be more vulnerable to tendon injury – particularly as these genes relate to collagen types. This is because collagen is the chief structural component of tendons. Knowing the genetic variants you have that could affect your propensity for further injury to your Patella tendon, can help to determine whether you can try to resume playing football or not.

Furthermore, there may be a host of advisable interventions and adjustments that could be implicated from the results of the testing. For example:

• Avoiding weight gain
• Keeping away from very soft or very hard training surfaces
• Increasing your speed incrementally as you warm up
• Developing an individually tailored, targeted nutritional plan

And much more.

Predictive Genomics DNA Profiling for Athletic Performance presents significant possibilities for the prevention of injuries and the optimisation of individual athletic capabilities – not to mention targeted sports choices.

Here at the Sports Injury Diagnosis Clinic, we’re following the development of this new testing with a keen eye. If you require any further information please don’t hesitate to contact us.