The ITU world was buzzing recently with the news that Alastair Brownlee is injured, with a small tear in his left achilles tendon that was expected to sideline him for a month. It was reported that the injury should not impact Brownlee’s race schedule as he prepares for London 2012, with his first major event taking place in San Diego in May.“Obviously this isn’t an ideal situation, but I can say that this has been his best winter’s training, probably ever,” Malcolm Brown (one of Brownlees’s coaches) told the BBC. “We had scheduled a break from training at the end of the winter period anyway, so I am not overly concerned at this stage. He is swimming every day, and will train on a static bike today."
This is big news, and no doubt Brownlee has access to the best of treatment and advice so we can only take the news as it is reported. However, as someone who's had two achilles surgeries on the same leg (plus another op for a related matter), I thought I might offer some thoughts based on what I've learned about the topic.
But first, I'm no medico, so these are just my considered thoughts.
Suffice to say, the achilles is a very important tendon for running. Tendons are also notoriously fickle things to treat with many techniques that are / have been used but none that are proven to be better than any other. Just ask someone with 'tennis elbow', 'jumpers knee' or more relevantly, achilles tendinopathy, about their torment dealing with them. A tear might be more clear cut, I don't know, but to me, anything issue to do with the achilles sounds the biggest, brightest and loudest warning bells.
When dealing with achilles issues, you need to think in terms of weeks and months, not days. It just doesn't respond that way. It is said that Brownlee is in an "air boot" which I assume is a CAM (Controlled Ankle Motion) boot which is great for forcibly resting the achilles while still allowing some general mobility (I used to commute on a bike wearing mine!!). But a CAM boot has other issues - it rapidly weakens the muscles in the lower leg, and can cause knee and/or hip issues due to the uneven nature of having one foot basically on a platform several centremetres off the ground - if you walk too much like this, you get knock on problems elsewhere.
So even if Brownlee is in the boot for 2-4 weeks and his achilles does repair (I suggest that would be best case), then not only is the achilles going to continue to be a weakness, but his calf and lower leg will also be weak - all this takes time to rehab let alone to be doing quality (run) training. All the while, time is ticking down to the Olympics, even though he has earned a slot already. The injury and time out of training will present as a chink in his armour, although he has returned from injury before (stress fracture in his femur in 2010, I think) successfully. I'd suggest an achilles tear is more complicated than a stressie.
What his injury also means is that his competitors not only benefit from training that Brownlee is missing, but will give them a huge motivational boost to know that a key gold medal contender is, perhaps, not untouchable. Brownlee is a mortal, like them, which in their mind will level the playing field enormously and perhaps change the way the race may be run. Expect to see the top ITU guys with an extra spring in their stride.
I hope Brownlee does recover as we all want to see the best in the world compete at their best for Olympic gold, and I hope my speculation is way off mark. Either way, we all know there are two Brownlees and the younger Johnathon is reportedly still going well.
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