Sam Ruthe Stress Fracture

How can it not be a running related injury?

What do you do during soccer? Run.
You don’t get a stress fracture from just kicking a soccer ball. A stress reaction happens over time, just because you got the first signs of pain while playing soccer doesn’t mean soccer caused the stress fracture.

You are a good dad. BUT, you either live a life wrapped in a cotton wool when 16, or become a sports legend. You don't get both.

Just ask Wayde Van Niekerk. He was very lucky to get his injury after setting the WR.

Stress fx are overuse injuries. Bone stess injuries by definition are from stressing the bone through repeated insults.

Maybe look at deep water running especially on the early stages, first weeks. as opposed cycling.

There will be leg machine exercise allowed, leg extensions, curls, abductor, as advised by an expert.

I would do very moderate amounts of thes adjunct exercises, to stay in touch with fitness, and this program may rasily benefit long term.

A great runner playing soccer? Beyond foolish. Guys with extraordinary talent should never take chances with their health.

Ended the career of WVN. A terrible shame.

Speedy recovery wishes for young Sam Ruthe.

Like several others, I kind of doubt the soccer itself was the cause, but I agree with his dad that a 16 year-old should be hanging out with his mates, not "wrapped in cotton." Most important is that he & his team recognized it early and took action. He should be fine.

Thanks for updating us Ben, everyone looks forward to seeing your son make a full and quick recovery. Keep it up with the sustainable, long-term perspective and best wishes to Sam when he’s back on the track later this summer.

Right. The lack of deeper thought on this one is odd.

'Tweaking a calf playing soccer' I'm assuming means it's lower leg and saying this I would then assume means it's a tibia/fibula because they are literally the only two bones near/around/associated with the calf muscle. That would seem like an odd place to get a stress fracture completely associated with playing soccer.

And if it is just an innocent soccer injury (must have been playing a lot of soccer off season down in NZ), I think then the bigger cause of concern is how a young, extremely fit and healthy 16 year was just able to develop a random and unforeseen bone issue from just messing around having fun in his off season. Maybe he does need cotton wool. I'd be pretty concerned if it was 'just the soccer' but if I was the father of a 16 year old that had just run 22 races in 14 months across multiple time zones, I'd be looking for a convenient misdirection too.

Documenting the kids life on social media which puts timelines to workouts and races so everyone can connect dots on his massive workload over the last year or so doesn't help the story either.

haha yeah exactly. It may have started hurting him while playing soccer, but it is obviously a running related injury that happened over the course of training.

Jakob had had many of these before Sam’s age.

A tough break, literally. 16 year olds get injuries. Often, when they are growing rapidly, they have growth plate pain under their knee (Osgood Schlatter's). Good to let him be a good and play soccer with his mates. The more time off the better. He has absolutely nothing to prove this year. He has already broken 3:49 indoors at 16. He'll have to take down time now and then let him ease back in through xc and regular sports. The way that many prodigies fall is by overdoing, not taking rest, making everything painful or like a chore. It's good this was caught before it was worse. But I would also take this as a sign to think about the underlying causes of the injury, whether it is bone density, too much intensity on the track, a lack of calcium in the diet, etc. That way you may be able to avoid a longer cycle of injuries later this year and next while he's still growing.

good to let him be a kid.

You only need to look at one of his last runs—15 km at 3:36/km—and an attempt at a triathlon to see the warning signs. Where is Coach Kirkwood in all this? It’s clear he’s not providing any guidance. Calling it a non–running-related injury removes accountability and is akin to putting your head in the sand. This kid is arguably one of the greatest prodigies we’ve seen; he doesn’t know any better. Boys will be boys, but coaches should be coaching.

Silver lining... It's not the worst thing to rest his body for a few months. He's already approaching world class at 16. That kind of training regimen is tough on a body that is still growing.

Relax, do some cycling and swimming. Don't rush back into running. If there is a year to get injured, this is it.

A few years down the road, this may be seen more as a positive development.

My gut instinct as well

No, an elite runner should stay in that bubble and lock the door.

Bill McChesney was playing pickup basketball in HS and landed on a ball that rolled by from another game. He suffered an Achilles injury that plagued him throughout his post HS carreer.

All sessions seem to be on road, and track. Asking for trouble. We knew this in the 70's.

I was thinking of Olaf Beyer. He was only 20 and he completely destroyed both Coe and Ovett in the 1978 European 800m champs. And then he blew apart his ankle in a recreational soccer match. The injury required surgery and he was never the same athlete after that. Basically Beyer could have set world records and won Olympic golds but it was not to be all because of a recreational soccer injury.

Let him have a few rugby games too. He's only potentially the biggest talent in a hundred years.