OldEngland
Practice Squad Player
- Joined
- Jan 21, 2008
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@mitsudriver. The terminology gets mixed up sometimes, I'm not sure if the UK and US are different in this regard. From the article they are reporting a dislocation of the left shoulder.
I'm a physio, so I see at least a couple of dislocations a week, usually a week or so afterwards to fully recovered. My patients are absolutely nowhere near the physical specimens of NFL players though, so take what I say with a pinch of salt.
A separation is of the AC joint - where the far end of your collar bone connects to the very highest and most forward part of your shoulder blade. It's painful, but unless you completely tear all the ligaments it doesn't really change your function all that much. If this is what Thomas has done he can survive with painkillers unless he starts taking direct hits. The ligaments don't always heal particularly well so a small surgery may be required in the off-season. I don't think this is what Dr Chao is reporting.
A full dislocation the actual shoulder joint pops out, the ball section (the humeral head) pops out of the groove of the glenoid cavity (a very shallow socket) in a backwards, forwards or downwards direction. Depending how long it is out for (and the force of the trauma) depends how much soft tissue damage there is around the joint, and in turn the stability you are left with. It's possible to stretch the soft tissue and nerves fairly badly. Most of the people I see have a history of dislocation for a few hours, we know Thomas was 15 mins max - so probably minimal damage. I have seen people with this not be able to move their shoulder at all, to having good movement, but pain in the wrong direction within the two week timespan we are talking about. The labral tear they are reporting would further restrict movement, this what would require surgery rather than the dislocation itself..
A subluxation. the actual shoulder joint pops out and goes straight back in again. It can be a bit unstable, but again a load of taping and shouldn't change function too much. I don't think you can get a labral tear with just a subluxation though.
Bottom-line the most unstable and challenging position for a previous acute dislocation is abduction and external rotation. i.e arm fully extended above the head with hand turned out. I imagine the shoulder cuff will restrict this movement.
In other words - I don't think you challenge him by under-throwing, but go high over his head and to that injured side and make him really stretch for it. And get Blount or Gronk to run wide of him in the gap to that left side and make him stretch to arm tackle. Potential is that the harness either restricts him or he wiffs and misses the tackle/ball.
P.s. tough dude going back into the NFC championship game.
I'm a physio, so I see at least a couple of dislocations a week, usually a week or so afterwards to fully recovered. My patients are absolutely nowhere near the physical specimens of NFL players though, so take what I say with a pinch of salt.
A separation is of the AC joint - where the far end of your collar bone connects to the very highest and most forward part of your shoulder blade. It's painful, but unless you completely tear all the ligaments it doesn't really change your function all that much. If this is what Thomas has done he can survive with painkillers unless he starts taking direct hits. The ligaments don't always heal particularly well so a small surgery may be required in the off-season. I don't think this is what Dr Chao is reporting.
A full dislocation the actual shoulder joint pops out, the ball section (the humeral head) pops out of the groove of the glenoid cavity (a very shallow socket) in a backwards, forwards or downwards direction. Depending how long it is out for (and the force of the trauma) depends how much soft tissue damage there is around the joint, and in turn the stability you are left with. It's possible to stretch the soft tissue and nerves fairly badly. Most of the people I see have a history of dislocation for a few hours, we know Thomas was 15 mins max - so probably minimal damage. I have seen people with this not be able to move their shoulder at all, to having good movement, but pain in the wrong direction within the two week timespan we are talking about. The labral tear they are reporting would further restrict movement, this what would require surgery rather than the dislocation itself..
A subluxation. the actual shoulder joint pops out and goes straight back in again. It can be a bit unstable, but again a load of taping and shouldn't change function too much. I don't think you can get a labral tear with just a subluxation though.
Bottom-line the most unstable and challenging position for a previous acute dislocation is abduction and external rotation. i.e arm fully extended above the head with hand turned out. I imagine the shoulder cuff will restrict this movement.
In other words - I don't think you challenge him by under-throwing, but go high over his head and to that injured side and make him really stretch for it. And get Blount or Gronk to run wide of him in the gap to that left side and make him stretch to arm tackle. Potential is that the harness either restricts him or he wiffs and misses the tackle/ball.
P.s. tough dude going back into the NFC championship game.
