Microfracture surgery, though minimally invasive, carries the stigma of being a career-ender for professional athletes.
New York Knicks power forward Amar'e Stoudemire underwent the procedure in 2005, and while he remained dominant afterwards, he now wishes he hadn't gone under the knife.
Stoudemire made the revelation in a first-person interview with Bleacher Report (which you can read in its entirety here), admitting that he had no idea what the procedure entailed going into surgery.
My intense training focus first started after my microfracture surgery in 2005. That was the hardest recovery I've ever been through in my life. I actually didn't know what a microfracture was. If I had known what a microfracture was, I would have never gotten that procedure. Going into surgery, it actually wasn't guaranteed that I was going to have a microfracture.
The doctors said, "There's an option between a scope or a microfracture depending on how big the injury is." So I said, "OK." They said, "We're going to go in and see, and if it's a microfracture we're just going to have the procedure." So I wake up and there's a microfracture, so I'm like, "Holy smokes. How long am I out for?" They said, "Six to 12 months." I couldn't walk for like two months after the procedure. No weight bearing and I had a machine that flexed my knee for me. I was like, "Man, this is crazy."
When I went through the recovery, one day I feel great and the next day I'm in excruciating pain. It was just back and forth. I'm hearing, "Stoudemire will never be the same. He will not recover from this injury." They're naming Jamal Mashburn, Penny Hardaway, Chris Webber—all these great players who had this procedure and never returned. And I have a day where I feel like, "Oh, I'm back," and then I feel like, "Oh, can I ever get back?" So I had to work and train and work and train, and I developed a habit of training.
[H/t Pro Basketball Talk]
