Knee injury: Haussler needs more time

Manama : Heinrich Haussler from Bahrain Merida Pro Cycling Team is still not ready to start racing due to a knee injury and is currently undergoing physiotherapy with electric waves and it is not known yet, when he will be able to return to the track.
Dr. Carlo Guardascione a member of Bahrain Merida medical staff, explained Haussler’s condition: “The accidental injury, which occurred at the end of November 2016, caused him severe left knee sprain with capsular edema. The first instrumental examinations, including MRI showed an important edema by impact of the left femoral condyle and a suspicion of cartilage damage.”
After many orthopaedic specialist visits in Germany and additional consultations in Italy and Croatia, Haussler underwent an arthroscopic surgery in Austria on December 31 to remove the synovial plica and patellar cartilage brushing. After the surgery he immediately began a programme of functional recovery both with bike and swimming, physiotherapy and local therapies.
A training camp in Benidorm in January 2017 caused a significant slowdown of the recovery programme, so Haussler was visited by another orthopaedic specialist, who proposed a variant of the functional recovery programme but confirmed the need of a rather long recovery time.
“The same knee has been injured in the past”, concludes Dr. Guardascione. “All specialists that he has seen, including arthroscopic surgeon, with proposed therapies can’t give an exact date for his return. We will need to be patient and see how it will goes in the following weeks and how the knee reacts with the proposed therapies and adequate training programme.”
Haussler said, “All I can really say is that I still have problems with my knee and I’m doing many different therapies, exercises and physio to try to resolve the problem so I can start racing again. It has been going on for many months now but I am doing everything possible to get back to a level where I can start racing again. I’m back on bike at the moment and small steps have been made but I will still need some more time to heal 100%.”
Tristan Hoffmann, one of the sports directors, commented: “We are all very sorry that Heinrich cannot join us on the races for now. We miss his spirit, his experience and leadership skills. For now, all we know is that he needs time to heal properly and we are not sure yet when he will be able to race again.”