Playing soccer and basketball recreationally after the age of thirty is a great idea - if you want to rupture your Achilles tendon or knee ligaments, says orthopedist Nikola Bogosavljević
When two and a half years ago I football tore the anterior cruciate ligament knees and meniscus, I first called the orthopedist Nikola Bogosavljević, whom I have known since high school.
He operates in the orthopedic clinic in Banjica and is one of the few people in the region specializing in bone and joint tumors. He then roughly told me I was crazy for playing football at "that age".
Wait a minute, in what age? "Anything over thirty, if you are not in very strong training," explained Bogosavljević now for our newsletter Medjuvreme.
Weekend warriors
He saw people like me. Many end up sooner or later Spas. Doctors call them "weekend warriors" in slang, heavy recreationists who "play sports once a week and want to make up for inactivity."
"With age, the secretion of collagen decreases, tendons and ligaments lose elasticity, muscle mass decreases - and all this leads to easier injuries," says Bogosavljević.
Most often, he says, the Achilles tendon is injured. It just snaps, like a tight string. People often think that someone has hit them, tripped them, but as a rule they injure themselves. Then there are various knee injuries.
I ask which sports are the most dangerous for recreational players. "Sports with a quick change of direction, football, basketball, tennis." You have strong sudden muscle contractions on the tendons, which are higher than they used to be, so ruptures are frequent. Football is also a rough contact sport, so recreational players are additionally at risk."
Surgery maybe?
But, we don't really live our lives according to medical advice. We work, we take care of our worries, we look forward to playing football or basketball with our friends once a week. Then beer, socializing. Ritual.
"There are people who love sports passionately and nothing I tell them can scare them," says Bogosavljević. "Some have catastrophic findings and go for artificial joints, but they say they will continue to play, so they will suffer later."
Serbian orthopedists are usually conservative when it comes to operations. They say, she is always a risk, and rehabilitation can be difficult.
"But if someone's knee ligament rupture, for example, will significantly affect the quality of life, if he cannot imagine himself without football or basketball, then he is a candidate for surgery," continues Bogosavljević.
Swim and spin the wheel
Finally, I ask what we "old people" should do according to the orthopedic age calculation.
"For people after thirty, it is best to work in the gym with moderate weights, with prior stretching and warming up. This is how muscle tone is maintained without a heavy load."
Running is also fine, but on a softer surface like grass or a tartan track. Concrete is evil. "Swimming and cycling are even better because they engage the whole body, and there is no load on the surface, the chances of injury are small," says Bogosavljević.
If only I had listened to him back then! But, I played football again, the cartilage in my knee cracked and now my boots are hanging on a peg. And I could swim well and ride a bike.
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