My son (College Freshman) was injured in late October during an inter squad scrimmage. He felt something in his forearm and walked off the mound and called for the trainer. The first Dr. he seen did an ultrasound and said there was a partial tear of his flexor tendon and he would need 4-6 weeks to heal. The doc scheduled an MRI to confirm what he seen. Unfortunately the MRI revealed a significant tear of the UCL. He had surgery this week and is now on the long road to recovery. He seems to be in good spirits now and I will give credit for that to his teammates, friends and coaches.
We will never know why he tore his UCL. What we do know is that he NEVER had any pain in his elbow or forearm. He did not have a drop in velocity leading up to the pitch that the injury occured on. I don't believe that he was overused at anytime in his young baseball career. He played for really good coaches when he was 11-13 and while "Pitch Smart" was not around at that time, he never was used in a way that would have violated any of the "Pitch Smart" recommendations. As he moved up to the big field he struggled as a pitcher and never pitched more than 30 innings in a calendar year until he turned 16. His Junior year of HS he pitched 11 innings for the school and then another 45 innings combined for the summer and fall. As a Senior he pitched 46 innings and never pitched twice in the same week. After his last game his college coaches had him shut down completely for 6 weeks. He enrolled in summer school in July and began throwing under the guidance of his pitching coach. They started throwing bullpens 8 weeks later.
While I never wanted to see this happen to my son, it probably came at the best time possible. He will miss a year but he doesn't have to try to rush rehab to come back. He has 14 and a half months till the 2018 season starts. The extra year will also allow him time to grow physically and to mature more as a young man. He told me he is ready to own the rehab and he will come back bigger stronger and better.
