Former Champ Luke Rockhold Reveals Outlook on Knee Injury
Former middleweight champion Luke Rockhold suffered a knee injury during training that prevented him from facing Jacare Souza at UFC Fight Night 101 in Melbourne, Australia.
The 32-year-old hopes to avoid having ACL surgery and is in the process of seeing if the knee will heal itself.
“I’ve had quite a few assessments on the knee from different doctors. A small bundle is pulled off the ACL at the attachment point. I’m trying to go through the natural process of healing, which they say that there’s a high potential of it reconnecting itself,” Rockhold told Submission Radio in a recent interview.
“I’ve done two series of PRP (platelet rich plasma) shots. I’ll probably do a third, and I might do some stem cells. I’m trying to do everything that I can to avoid surgery. That’s a key for me,” he added. “Anytime you go into ACL orthoscopic or reconstruction, it’s a good 12 months; it’s a year out pretty much from everything.”
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Rockhold will have a better idea of how the knee is progressing in a couple of months. Right now, he’s trying to take it easy and give it time to heal.
“I’ve been told that potentially, in a couple of months, that it could reattach itself and I can start kicking again. It’s weird because it feels good in so many ways, but the moment I kick it feels like my knee is going to fall apart if I’m kicking at full power, so I’m just trying to lay off of that and not try to aggravate it and let it heal up,” he said.
Rockhold isn't certain about when the injury exactly occurred. He noticed that the knee “felt loose” when he'd throw leg kicks and believes it was “just wear and tear.”
