A rare injury, a more determined player: Adrian’s knee dislocation

Adrian can barely remember a time when he didn’t play football. Now 16, he grew up watching games with his father, Antron, who’d played for a top-tier college and practiced with the NFL. In addition to televised games, the two often traveled to Tennessee for football weekends with his father’s former teammates.

“Football is a big part of my life,” says Adrian. “Obviously it’s my favorite sport.”

By his first year in high school, Adrian was known as a player who could move the ball down the field. And he was doing just that, in his team’s final game of the season, when he got tackled.

“He was a smaller kid, and his helmet went right into my knee,” he recalls. Adrian didn’t think he was hurt until he couldn’t get up and saw his lower leg.

The impact of the tackle and the way his leg twisted when he fell had dislocated his knee. His thigh and shin bones, which normally line up in the knee, had been forced apart and now his lower leg was at a strange angle. He’d later learn that several important ligaments around his knee had been torn as well.

“He left the field in an ambulance,” recalls Adrian’s mother, Jen. When the emergency team in a hospital south of Boston saw how seriously he was injured, they transferred him to Boston Children’s Hospital.

A rare and serious injury

Even in high-impact sports like football, knee dislocations are rare. The amount of energy it takes to dislocate a knee is more typical of a car crash than a high school game. In professional football, a knee dislocation can end a player’s career.

Dr. Melissa Christino, a surgeon in Boston Children’s Orthopedics and Sports Medicine Department, shared this information with the family at their first appointment. Jen was in shock. “Dr. Christino was honest with us. She told us the odds were not in Adrian’s favor to return to sports with the same level of physical ability.”

She also warned the family about the emotional toll sports injuries can have on young athletes. “I don’t think a lot of people talk about what it does to kids to be removed from all the things — their sport, their teammates, their social life — that have filled their life with joy,” says Jen.

What it takes to repair a dislocated knee: Surgery and patience

Doctors had moved his bones back into alignment the night he was injured, but Adrian’s medial collateral ligament (MCL) and anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) were still torn. Before he could even walk again, let alone run, he’d need surgery.

Dr. Christino repaired the MCL two weeks after he was injured. Eight weeks later, she reconstructed his ACL. After that, all Adrian could do was wait, commit himself to rehab, and give his knee time to heal.  

“I hated being out for so long,” he says. “But it taught me to be appreciative of the things I was naturally given (his athletic talent) and the fact they can just be gone in a second.”

Meanwhile, his parents kept watch for any signs of emotional distress. “He surprised us,” says Jen. No matter how hard it got — and his recovery took almost two years — his attitude was always, ‘I’ve got this. I’m going to return and play again.’”

Adrian runs the ball again

Finally, in the fall of his junior year, Adrian returned to the sport he loves, as part of the varsity team. He took to the field wearing a bulky knee brace, which he doesn’t love, but knows he’ll need to wear anytime he plays sports. The tradeoff, he says, is worth it.

“Football is different from every other sport. I love the connections you build within your team.”

With that brace, Adrian helped his team advance to the Final Four for the first time since 2017. Now, even though he missed his sophomore season, he plans to play college football, a goal that was in serious jeopardy two years ago.

“I know it’s not common for kids to come back from an injury like this, but he’s doing really well,” says Jen. “Dr. Christino worked her magic, he put in the work, and between the two of them, he’s been able to return.”

Learn more about the Orthopedics and Sports Medicine Department.