Microfracture Surgery - 6 Months Onwards

The main aim of this section to really progress the dynamic and speed aspects of your rehabilitation. This is when you can start to introduce more sport-specific training.

Do I have to stick with only running in straight lines now?

No, now you have passed the six-month mark following your surgery, you can really start to use your knee normally, including things you haven’t done yet.

Things like what?

Well, now you can start to explore some more sports-specific work like cutting, pivoting, jumping and landing.

That’s great, but I haven’t done it for a long time and I’m a bit unsure.

It is totally normal to feel a little apprehensive about increasing the challenge to your knee, especially when you’ve been told to look after it for so long. The best way to approach this phase of your recovery is at your own pace.

You will find a large library of exercises and drills designed to help your knee and we’ve laid them out so they are progressive. In other words, the easier ones are at the start.

Dice with arrows and the words 'Step by step' written on them in the shape of stairs.

What should I expect when doing these exercises?

That will vary from person to person, but you will probably find that you have to work on your confidence as much as your knee, hence we suggest you pick your own starting point and only work on things you are happy with and more importantly, only move onto a bigger challenge when you are ready.

How soon until I can get back into my sport?

Now that you can start working on exercises that will hopefully challenge your knee in a way your sport will, perhaps in a slightly more gentle way initially, you can start to consider going training.

Returning to full contact sport can be considered from six months, but it is strongly advised that you explore these training exercises below to build your confidence and ability first before jumping back into sport.

Exercise tip

You should aim to complete the exercises (as many or as few as you want to) about 3 to 4 times a week.

Each exercise should be completed between 8-12 times (or repetitions) for 3 to 4 sets. Make sure you have about 1 minute's rest in between each set.

In order to change your muscles, you need to challenge them. In other words, you should really feel the effort with each set of exercises and should really not be able to do more than 12 each time around.