Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Analyzing the Marcus Thames Injury

Marcus Thames, of the New York Yankees, suffered an ankle injury in Wednesday’s game against the Rays. He is now listed as day-to-day, as the X-rays have reportedly come back negative.

The injury came after Thames stepped on his own bat after a single to left field. Footage of the play can be seen on the MLB.com website, which you can check out here.

After watching the footage, the injury appears to have been an inversion injury of the ankle. Incidents like this can lead to ligament strains and ruptures, tendon tears, and even fractures of the fibula or tibia. The X-rays ordered following Thames’ injury was likely to rule out fractures.

Being listed as day-to-day is likely an indication that Thames’ injury is not very severe. A possible ligament strain or partial tear is possible, particular of the anterior talo-fibular ligament. This structure composes part of the ligamentous support of the lateral ankle, and is susceptible to injury.

Another diagnosis that is highly possible is an injury to the peroneal tendons. There are a number of different ways for a tendon to be injured, most of which are classified by which layer or area of the tendon is injured, or by whether the etiology is acute or chronic. In this situation, the etiology would be acute (from the incident of the injury) and the area injured would most likely be in the tendon close to the insertion into bone. If we were looking for a fracture, it would most likely be found at the base of the fifth metatarsal (where the peroneus brevis inserts) or at the base of the first metatarsal and medial cuneiform (where the peroneus longus inserts).

Since the X-rays were “negative”, a fracture of this nature is not likely. This should come to good news to Thames and the Yankees, who have seen a plague of outfielder injuries this spring.


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