Eric Chavez, an inevitable result!
Sadly, my predictions became reality and too soon for Mr. Eric Chavez. Today he added a fracture in his fifth metatarsal of the left foot to his already long list of injuries.
As I already explained in the previous posts, Mr. Chavez has a high risk of getting injured and today he demonstrated it. And even though the media that covered the event considered that this injury does not have any relation to any previous situations, I will show you that actually today's fracture is most likely a consequence of a succession of training and rehabilitation mistakes.
Since 2004 Mr. Chavez was at least 32 times in Disabled List, and in 6 occasions his absence from the game was related to surgeries. Therefore, most probably he was suffering pain and discomfort each time before he was placed in Disabled List. We can then assume that in a high percentage of his MLB career Mr. Chavez was dealing with pain, inflammation and movement impairment.
The usual treatment in those cases is the administration of anti-inflammatories, rest (hopefully!) and many times cortisone shots (to allow the player to compete sooner than he should). We can estimate the amount of anti-inflammatories doses that Chavez probably took, we know the amount of non-physically active time of his career and we can "imagine" how many cortisone shoots he had in almost every region of his body.
Interestingly, each of those treatments are related to the decrement and/or disorganization of the bone structure. Basically, corticosteroid medications affect the amount and quality of material that is deposited in the bones and the lack of mechanical stress (lack of exercise) decreases the strength of the bone structure.
Clearly, his recent training did not have into account those aspects of his past biological history. He was back to full competition in a highly risky situation and the result should not be a surprise.
Now you can ask, why his foot and not other part of his body?
If we analyze one more time the running mechanics of Mr. Chavez, action that caused the fracture, we can notice that his left foot is having ground contact first with the external fore foot (see picture below). It is exactly the same place were the fracture seems to be located (we have to wait for the medical exams to verify it).
By organizing all the information that we have we can estimate that Mr. Chavez might have today a fragile bone structure as a consequence of all his years of injuries and disorganized training and rehabilitation. He also has an inadequate running mechanics that loads an area of the foot that is not anatomically prepared for that high stress. If we calculate the load by square inch that his body weight generates when landing in that small area, that is also most likely weak, we can see that the foot is probably one of the most vulnerable places of his body.
This last injury was clearly preventable if a careful analysis of Mr. Chavez current biological and training situation together with a rational process for "back to competition" would have been implemented.
As I already explained in the previous posts, Mr. Chavez has a high risk of getting injured and today he demonstrated it. And even though the media that covered the event considered that this injury does not have any relation to any previous situations, I will show you that actually today's fracture is most likely a consequence of a succession of training and rehabilitation mistakes.
Since 2004 Mr. Chavez was at least 32 times in Disabled List, and in 6 occasions his absence from the game was related to surgeries. Therefore, most probably he was suffering pain and discomfort each time before he was placed in Disabled List. We can then assume that in a high percentage of his MLB career Mr. Chavez was dealing with pain, inflammation and movement impairment.
The usual treatment in those cases is the administration of anti-inflammatories, rest (hopefully!) and many times cortisone shots (to allow the player to compete sooner than he should). We can estimate the amount of anti-inflammatories doses that Chavez probably took, we know the amount of non-physically active time of his career and we can "imagine" how many cortisone shoots he had in almost every region of his body.
Interestingly, each of those treatments are related to the decrement and/or disorganization of the bone structure. Basically, corticosteroid medications affect the amount and quality of material that is deposited in the bones and the lack of mechanical stress (lack of exercise) decreases the strength of the bone structure.
Clearly, his recent training did not have into account those aspects of his past biological history. He was back to full competition in a highly risky situation and the result should not be a surprise.
Now you can ask, why his foot and not other part of his body?
If we analyze one more time the running mechanics of Mr. Chavez, action that caused the fracture, we can notice that his left foot is having ground contact first with the external fore foot (see picture below). It is exactly the same place were the fracture seems to be located (we have to wait for the medical exams to verify it).
By organizing all the information that we have we can estimate that Mr. Chavez might have today a fragile bone structure as a consequence of all his years of injuries and disorganized training and rehabilitation. He also has an inadequate running mechanics that loads an area of the foot that is not anatomically prepared for that high stress. If we calculate the load by square inch that his body weight generates when landing in that small area, that is also most likely weak, we can see that the foot is probably one of the most vulnerable places of his body.
This last injury was clearly preventable if a careful analysis of Mr. Chavez current biological and training situation together with a rational process for "back to competition" would have been implemented.
Thanks Daniel! I found this really interesting (and sad, poor guy)...especially since I've been dealing with my broken foot for 8 1/2 months! I do not envy him. I am so glad that I did not have any cortisone injections, even though it has been a slow process, at least my healing has been steady and well guided by my AMAZING PT/Osteopath.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, MLB players do not have that luxury...they are commodities to their owners and their fans. I hope for his sake that it heals fully and he is not left with permanent issues.