Matt Jackson Believes He’s Had An ACL Injury For Over A Decade
Photo Credit: Bill Pritchard
During the AEW Full Gear post-show media scrum last night, Matt Jackson of The Young Bucks began talking about an ACL injury that he has been dealing with for awhile. Some fans questioned if he had been faking this injury for TV but Matt set the record straight by saying this is very real.
Matt said, “It’s a very real injury that I have been dealing with. It’s been a rough year for me. I come back after all that time off in the lockdown and the first thing I do is break my rib when I jumped out of the dugout. I dealt with that for a second. That sucked. Then, we did that ‘Falls Count Anywhere’ match between The Butcher & The Blade and I decided it would be a good idea to jump off the entrance set. There is only concrete, not a good idea. For a while, I was having a hard time walking at home and hobbling around.”
But Matt started to believe the injury was something else unrelated to his ACL. Matt said, “I thought I may have had a hairline fracture in my fibula or something. My amazing wife, who is also watching this, noticed that I was having a hard time getting around and Doctor Sampson ordered me an MRI just to see what was going on. Turns out, it wasn’t my fibula, it was soft tissue. It was the back of my knee, my MCL and after we looked at the MRI, I had a slight tear. Nothing at the time that needed surgery. The most interesting part was that I had thinning of my ACL which they also considered a slight tear. I haven’t had any pain in my ACL, just wear and tear. I remember thinking back, ‘Have I ever hurt my ACL?’ I remember watching back in 2008, I banged up my knee and I had a hard time with it for a second. That’s the only time I can recall ever hurting my left knee in that area.”
Matt made it clear that he does feel good right now and has no plans to stop competing. He said, “I have been taping it before every match and this was my ninth match with the injury. Honestly, I felt pretty good, all things considered. Our medical staff is amazing. They would never send me out there if they weren’t confident with me and how I felt and I know my body as well. All things, considered, I feel pretty good about. The doctors feel pretty good about it. I’m going to take every precaution possible. If it starts bothering me, we’ll see what happens and we’ll do the right thing, but I’m not too worried about it.”
Do you think it is smart for Matt to keep wrestling as long as he feels good, or do you think it would be better for him to heal it now before it gets worse? Let us know in the comments below. You can also listen to the entire media scrum below.
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