Endo's Health

[Fukurou 534]

quoting from here, in the Honbasho Talk area

Oitekaze Oyakata reveals that Endo will not be getting surgery done on his knee. He will be missing the hanazumo tournament after the Hatsu basho. Currently he is doing training for his lower body at the beya.

http://www.nikkansports.com/battle/sumo/news/1596309.html

Is Oitekaze-oyakata an old man or something, unwilling to try anything new (to sumo, that is). I don't understand why he thinks more lower body exercise will fix damaged (destroyed?) knees.

EDIT: Answering my own rhetorical question, Oitekaze-oyakata is 50 years old, and had a 6 year career as an active rikishi with his highest rank being Maegashira 2.

Edited January 25, 2016 by Fukurou

[hamcornheinz 839]

man that sucks.

[Kishinoyama 482]

I remember seeing the photos taken during the match when the knee was injured. It was gruesome looking. My biggest fear is that he would injure that knee again before it had a chance to completely heal. That seems to be the case. :-(

Is it possible for a knee with torn ligaments to heal without surgery????

[orandashoho 718]

Is it possible for a knee with torn ligaments to heal without surgery????

I would have thought only if the tear is minor, which did not seem likely in Endo's case. But hey, I'm no doctor, I could be wrong. One has to presume that the professionals know best, but I was just amazed that he did not get surgery straight away. The injury certainly looked career-stoppingly serious. But everyone kept acting as if the knee would miraculously heal itself and Endo could keep on fighting... and just look at him now.

[WAKATAKE 2,338]

I remember seeing the photos taken during the match when the knee was injured. It was gruesome looking. My biggest fear is that he would injure that knee again before it had a chance to completely heal. That seems to be the case. :-(

Is it possible for a knee with torn ligaments to heal without surgery????

I believe it is possible but not in the time frame between basho for rikishi. This isn't just take a few days off from the basho and then come back the next basho. If he's going to want a chance then he needs to take Haru off as well. But since I don't know what type of "training" regiment that he's going through, it's hard to say that he'll be even ready for Haru.

One does have to wonder how somebody like that becomes an Oyakata, but if former M10 Ushiomaru can be hand picked by Takamiyama to be his successor for Azumazeki beya or Dairyu can get the Otake beya that was passed down from the great Taiho through scandal via Takatoriki, anything can happen then.

[Irakusamaru 77]

You'd think the oyakata would want to protect his rikishi, especially if his own income partly derives from how well they're doing. Otake-oyakata seems to realise this - a long Osunaarashi career with a small break is better than a short one without that break.

Even without surgery, he'll need 3-4 months for full recovery. With surgery, maybe up to six.

He's looked miserable (as in actually sad) on the dohyo the past couple of bashos. You can only gambarize so much.

[ScreechingOwl 342]

I remember seeing the photos taken during the match when the knee was injured. It was gruesome looking. My biggest fear is that he would injure that knee again before it had a chance to completely heal. That seems to be the case. :-(

Is it possible for a knee with torn ligaments to heal without surgery????

Generally a tear will not heal without surgery, although it's possible a very small tear might resolve on it's own with rest and therapy. It is also possible to build up the muscles around a small tear and try to work around it (putting less stress on the partially torn muscles). This is actually what Masahiro Tanaka, the Japanese pitcher for the New York Yankees has opted to do with a partial tear in his pitching arm. Pitching with the tear last year (after missing about half of 2014 to rest, consider the situation and have therapy) Tanaka pitched with a lower velocity and was less effective; he was a good pitcher instead of an exceptional one. At some point in the future the tear is likely to get larger and avoiding surgery will no longer be an option.

Endo clearly isn't able to wrestle effectively with his present injury. As Irakusamaru notes, it's not just not having surgery that's an issue, but the proper rest after surgery. In the US, an athlete with the type of knee injury that Osunaarashi, Terunofuji and Endo seem to have would typically require a rest period of 5 - 6 months after surgery before resuming professional sports. And that's in sports that do not have 350-400 pounds aite applying pressure to the injured/repaired knee.

Sumo has a long way to go to learn how to properly take care of its prize competitors.

Edited January 25, 2016 by ScreechingOwl

[Ryoshishokunin 208]

As someone with slightly dodgy knees, I can speak to this a bit:

No, ligaments don't heal except in very minor cases. Certainly not without some very specific treatment and de-loading of the poor things, which simply isn't going to happen for a rikishi. On the other hand, minor damage to ligaments and tendons can be 'covered up', as mentioned above, through physiotherapy/exercise that strengthens the surrounding musculature that doesn't run through that piece of connective tissue, as there's redundancy in most major joints in the body. That's simply insufficient for the major leg ligaments, though: The ACL and MCL are basically irreplacable.

This 'treament' is almost, but not quite, as bad as the rikishi getting acupuncture for a broken neck :/

[Akinomaki 34,288]

One does have to wonder how somebody like that becomes an Oyakata, but if former M10 Ushiomaru can be hand picked by Takamiyama to be his successor for Azumazeki beya or Dairyu can get the Otake beya that was passed down from the great Taiho through scandal via Takatoriki, anything can happen then.

Ex-Daishoyama was a great hope (that failed like Endo) when he entered and was promised a kabu already then, and on top of that married the daughter of the previous Oitekaze.

Not much here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daish%C5%8Dyama_Naoki

the Japanese version has more info

[hamcornheinz 839]

I can't imagine they haven't had experts look into it, any word on what the experts suggested and if they went against/ for it?

[Arn 24]

Like has been said above it it possible to a certain extent to "work through" a torn ligament. I have a torn ACL and it never bothers me at all. But I am of course not a sumo wrestler...being heavy like a sumo and doing wrestling with a torn ASL sounds like a very bad idea since the knee will always be unstable. The ACL does just that, stabilizes the knee. Without it the knee will be prone to "buckling"/hyperextending, and when that happens you risk injuring the other ligaments, the meniscus and the cartilage. With time there will also be a lot more wear on the cartilage since the bones can move around more freely.

As I understand it a completely torn ASL can nowadays be fixed in a way that makes it even stronger than it was originally. They take a bit of the achilles tendon and use as a new ACL but they make it a bit thicker than it was before.

Recovery takes around six months, after that he should be able to start training sumo again. So to me this is simple, get an operation Endo!