The Minnesota Timberwolves announced Thursday afternoon that the magnetic resonance image (MRI) of point guard Jeff Teague’s left knee revealed a grade one sprain of his medial collateral ligament (MCL), and the Wolves’ fan base let out the breath they had been holding since Wednesday night.
Teague sustained his injury when the Denver Nuggets’ guard Gary Harris fell onto his lateral knee during the scrum after a jump ball.
The MCL is a strong ligament located on the inner, or medial, knee and is one of the four ligaments that provide the majority of the stability for the knee including the anterior cruciate (ACL), posterior cruciate (PCL), and lateral collateral (LCL).
The MCL is comprised of two bands (a superficial and a deep) and provides resistance against valgus forces, which would cause the knee to cave in medially towards the midline of the body.
The ligament can be injured when an excessive valgus force, either by contact such as with Teague’s injury or non-contact, is placed upon the knee.
MCL sprains are graded on a scale of one to three, with a grade one sprain being the least severe.
A grade one sprain involves an overstretch of the ligament and less than 10 percent of the fibers comprising the ligament being ruptured.
A grade two sprain means that a significant portion of the ligament has been torn, but it hasn’t completely ruptured and a grade three sprain occurs when the ligament did tear all the way through.
Because the MCL has a good blood supply, grade one sprains typically heal on their own within a couple of weeks, but the caveat that everyone heals differently needs to be mentioned; if Teague ends up missing upwards of a month that wouldn’t necessarily be abnormal.
The main treatment of these types of injuries includes rest and application of ice as well as strengthening the musculature around the hip and knee.
All things considered, Teague’s injury is relatively minor and shouldn’t have a major effect on his health moving forward as long as he is given the proper amount of time to rehab and recover.
Now is a good time to mention that it’s important to keep in mind that the optics of an injury don’t always equal injury severity.
Teague’s injury looked bad when it occurred with many, including myself, worrying that his ACL may have been compromised, but the news that it ended up being the least severe of all potential injuries that may occur with a valgus force to the knee goes to show that what’s seen isn’t always what should be trusted.
Additionally, it should be mentioned that Wolves’ head coach Tom Thibodeau’s proclivity for playing his starters a high amount of minutes played no factor in Teague’s injury and neither did his previous right achilles tendon soreness.
Although it is true that increased fatigue leads to a high chance of injury, those injuries tend to affect muscles more frequently or, when they are ligamentous in nature, are caused by muscle fatigue and, thus, are typically non-contact injuries. Teagues’ injury does not fit those characteristics and sometimes freak accidents just happen and injuries result.
Jeff Teague has been an integral component of the Wolves’ success to this point and his absence figures to be troublesome for the team as it limits their depth at the point guard position. But he shouldn’t be out for much more than a few weeks and will likely return to the starting lineup once he returns.
Update:
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