Christian McCaffrey recently took a trip to Germany to see a specialist about his Achilles tendon. The 28-year-old running back has been dealing with tendinitis since early in training camp and it forced him onto injured reserve to begin his second full year with the San Francisco 49ers.
From an outsider’s perspective, it might seem strange for an NFL player to visit a foreign country for an injury in the middle of the season.
However, Dr. Kenton Fibel recently explained to the San Francisco Chronicle that McCaffrey’s overseas trip actually makes a lot of sense. International regulations might allow him to receive treatment in Germany that he could not receive in the United States.
Dr. Fibel serves as the medical director of the Anaheim Ducks hockey team. He also specializes in orthobiologics, described as “a non-surgical field in which stem-cell and platelet-rich plasma injections are used to accelerate healing for a host of injuries that include Achilles tendinitis.”
Needless to say, Dr. Fibel is acutely aware of McCaffrey’s ongoing ailment.
Any and all medical treatment performed in the United States is governed by the Food and Drug Administration. The FDA does not allow all of the same orthobiologic treatments as Germany. Many (if not most) of Germany’s more expansive orthobiologic treatments are not banned by the NFL.
One can then assume that Christian McCaffrey is traveling to Deutschland to explore similar avenues.
Unfortunately, Dr. Fibel sees the international trip as a greater concern than the team might lead on. He wonders if McCaffrey is dealing with a more serious injury than tendinitis, like microscopic tears in the Achilles tendon. An orthobiolic procedure could then force the running back to miss more than four weeks.
Usually whenever you’re having some sort of a biologic procedure for a tendon, particularly an Achilles tendon, typically that’s going to require you to have enough time to rest and protect the tendon after the procedure. And then start to progress things forward while the tissue has a chance to biologically start to heal and restructure […]
With some of these more important weight-bearing tendons, it’s pretty safe to say that they’re not returning within the first four weeks of the procedure.
— Dr. Kenton Fibel, via the SF Chronicle
McCaffrey is not the first athlete to travel to Germany for this kind of treatment. Kobe Bryant, Peyton Manning and Alex Rodriguez are three of the most prominent sports figures to do so. Kirk Cousins quietly traveled to Antigua for stem cell treatment on his torn Achilles back in January.
The trip to Germany is not a great sign for the extent of McCaffrey’s injury, Dr. Fibel doesn’t think that the it and/or subsequent orthobiologic treament will end his season. It is a totally normal!