In this interview Luis Escudero Soria from Spain (Valencia) speaks out about his ACL passion, the collaboration with TeamACL and he has advice for ACL Patients.

WHO ARE YOU?

“My name is Luis Escudero. I have been working as a physiotherapist since 2014. I have been playing sport all my life, specifically football. Since 2016 I work in Levante UD, a professional football team in the city of Valencia.

During the years 2016-2018 I did my postgraduate studies specialising in sports injuries. Currently, I continue to work in the football team and combine it with work in a private clinic. I am used to seeing sports injuries and specialise in knee injuries. I work hand in hand with different orthopaedic surgeons and traumatologists with whom I share opinions, experiences and patients.”

ACL PASSION

My experience with cruciate ligament injuries goes back to when I was playing sport. Later as a physiotherapist I have treated cruciate ligament injuries both in the football team and in private practice. Knee injuries are the injuries I am most used to treating. Thanks to TeamACL it allows me to be connected with the latest news, to have updated information and to be able to be connected with other professionals who rehabilitate similar knee injuries.

ACL injuries are very common in the world of football. They are long term injuries that give the athlete a chance to experience a seven to eight month period and get to know themselves.

There are many physiotherapists who don’t like long term injuries, but I like to see the process and see how you get through each stage of the injury. The ACL injury seems a very complex rehabilitation, but when you have managed and overcome several injuries like that you realise that in the end, most of them behave in the same way and following the biological stages of the injury you get amazing results. I like to do the rehabilitation before the surgery itself, where I prepare the athlete mentally and physically for what is to come. I help the athlete to overcome their fears and prepare them for the months ahead.

I consider pre-surgery rehabilitation to be very important, because it establishes the first links between the patient and the physiotherapist and helps the athlete to generate a mental map of what the following months are going to be like. I love to see how the athlete arrives unable to walk and ends up returning to their sport or their life normally, that is my greatest passion.

WHAT DO YOU ADVICE FELLOW PHYSIOTHERAPISTS TO DO WITH TEAM-ACL?

“I think TeamACL can be a good tool for both professionals and patients who have suffered a cruciate ligament injury. TeamACL is a community to find good professionals to rehabilitate the injury and an information community for professionals. Getting TeamACL to develop in Spain is a priority for me because we don’t have anything similar here in Spain.

When a person has an injury like this, they don’t know where to turn, they have to rely on professionals without knowing if they have previous experience in that injury or they don’t know how it works.
Developing TeamACL in Spain would create a new community of Spanish professionals used to rehabilitate this injury, where they can put their opinions, experiences and even treatment plans.”

WHAT DO YOU ADVICE PATIENTS WITH AN ACL INJURY TO DO WHEN THEY HAVE IT?

“The first thing they need to do is to inform themselves. It is very important that the doctors and physiotherapists who treat you are specialists in knee injuries and ACL injuries in particular. ACL injuries are often accompanied by other associated knee injuries (meniscus, lateral ligaments). First of all, you need to have a good assessment by the doctor and define exactly what type of injury it is.

Good knee rehabilitation starts before the operation. So working on the muscles before the operation is very important for the rehabilitation to go as well as possible.”

Follow Luis Escudero on his Instagram Page

Text: Jeroen van de Camp, Team-ACL.com