Anaheim Ducks: Physical Therapy Corner, Corey Perry

The Anaheim Ducks have been without one of their best players in franchise history so far this season. Corey Perry suffered an MCL and medial meniscus injury in his right knee back during the pre-season. But the Ducks seem optimistic they will have him back before the trade deadline. So what does he need and to get back to the Ducks line-up?

I did this segment a while back with John Gibson and how he needed to stay healthy this season. Knock on wood, it looks like he’s taken my advice and so far so good. So, with the still long list of injuries the Anaheim Ducks are dealing with, I thought I would break it back out with another of the walking wounded.

This time its Corey Perry. Perry suffered, as stated above, a tear to his MCL and medial meniscus in his right knee. Although this injury is pretty common, it doesn’t take away from the extensive rehab that Perry is going through.

The MCL is one of four ligaments that attach your upper leg to your lower and create your knee joint. While the ACL tear is the far more well-known injury, the MCL isn’t far behind. The MCL lies along your knee on the inner side of the leg and is the ligament that stabilizes your knee most.

The meniscus, one of two in your knee acts as a sort of shock absorber for forces on the knee and provides a cushion so when you move your knee it isn’t bone moving on bone. So, following the surgery what would Corey Perry have to do to return to the ice?

Franchise Cornerstone

The Ducks are currently in second place in the Pacific Division. 3 points behind the Calgary Flames and 2 points clear of the third-place San Jose Sharks. They have done it with a suspect coach and a myriad of injuries to key players.

One of these being Corey Perry. Yes, it is true his productions has dipped over the last few seasons but there could be a reason for it. Following Perry’s injury, this pre-season Bob Murray was asked to questions about it. He had this to say courtesy of SI.com:

“He was doing the normal things he does at the end [of the warmup] and he pushed off hard on the right leg and it popped. Obviously, that’s because the MCL wasn’t tight. He’d been fighting that even though he wears braces on both knees. Maybe, as I tried to say to him [Tuesday], in this dark cloud maybe the silver lining is he gets it corrected. Let’s face it, Corey is a competitor and he wouldn’t come out of the lineup. He just keeps coming back. Maybe we should have fixed it a long time ago. Hindsight is easy.” -Bob Murray, Interview with the Orange Country Register

Wearing braces on both knees? Is it precautionary or has he been dealing with a bad knee or knees for a while now? I understand the competitive nature and to some degree, it’s nice to see a player with that a high a level. But when management could have pulled him out to have it fixed years ago I wonder why they didn’t. As much as it would have been tough to see Perry out of the line-up it would have been better to do it earlier rather than later. Who knows how long Perry was playing on at the very least a tweaked MCL and at the most a sprain.

And the meniscus injury is nothing to scoff at. That could have been torn for years and Perry was playing through it. At some point, toughness turns to stubbornness and worse from there. If he had it fixed earlier who know how he could look today. Instead, they wait until it finally tears and have no choice but to repair it. However, as Murray said hindsight is easy. What isn’t easy is what Corey Perry must do to return to the ice.

One Season Away

As the holidays approach so does the season of winter. With it, we are one season away from seeing Corey Perry return to the ice. When the injury and subsequent surgery occurred at the end of September the Ducks stated Perry would miss 5 months. That places Perry back at the end of February to the beginning of March. So, for that to be a reality, what will Perry have to do?

Well, the first two months Perry was most likely using crutches and a knee brace, allowing only certain ranges of motion each progressing couple of weeks. He was working with physical therapists who were moving his knee for him, controlling the swelling and pain and achieving the desired range of motion.

Based on the timeline he has definitely passed this point. He should be out of the brace and off crutches. He should have achieved the ability to do light exercises on his own focusing on getting his knee to fully extend and strengthen the prime muscles of his legs; hip flexors, quads, glutes, hamstrings etc. There are weight precautions he was stuck with and only certain ranges he should be pushing his knee too.

Now, he is in the next phase of his rehab. Continuing to build back strength as well as introducing a cardio routine. He is an NHL player after all and if he wants to get back into game shape his endurance needs to be at the right level.

This is also the phase where balance training becomes key. Balance exercises can also incorporate strengthing and endurance wrapping all three into one. Believe it or not, this is the most important phase. You can always add weight, you can always make him run longer and faster, you can always challenge his balance with different surfaces.

If he can’t do the small things here he can’t build off it. Perry is in the most important phase from now until the New Year. Then he can start getting back to his lifting as he would before the start of the season and most importantly get back on the ice.

All the strength, flexibility, balance, and endurance needs to be focused on the core muscles, hip flexors, quads, glutes, hamstrings, abductors, and adductors. I have no doubt the Ducks physical therapy staff is working round the clock to achieve that.