Kirby Dach: “The longer you wait, the more the tendon becomes a ligament”

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Crédit: Kirby Dach skates during Canadiens vs Islanders game.

When will Kirby Dach return to action? It’s been 6 months since Dach underwent surgery on his knee (again). The organization told us he’d be back in time for the start of the 2025-26 season, but now we’re hoping he’ll be back in time. It’s hard to know that far in advance when an athlete can return to 100% form after a second surgery on the anterior cruciate ligament of the same knee.

To find out a little more about Kirby Dach’s situation, a physiotherapist by the name of Gabriel Perreault was recently on 98.5 FM to discuss some interesting details. Gabriel Perreault (not the New York Rangers prospect) has worked for the Rimouski Oceanic, Hockey Québec and the Habs’ rookie camp. According to him, we need to be as patient as possible with him, so that his graft solidifies further.

[content-ads]First, the term graft means (in this case) to take a tendon from somewhere else (be it Dach, another person or even an animal) to replace the anterior cruciate ligament.

And as Perreault pointed out, the longer you wait for him to return to play, the more the tendon will become a ligament. As in Dach’s case, when you come to a second ACL surgery on the same knee, the failure rate increases. He added, however, that for surgeries like this, 60% of ordinary people return to their pre-surgery level. And in the case of athletes such as hockey players, the physiotherapist points out that it can climb to 80%, which is quite encouraging. It all varies depending on the surgery, as there may be limitations for the athlete in question. There is a panoply of physical and psychological tests to test the strength of the operated knee. When I say strength, I mean both maximum strength and endurance, and the aim is to compare the strength of the two knees, to find out where the operated knee stands. And ideally, you want a maximum difference of 10%. In short, this column has certainly enabled us to learn more about an operation of this kind, and possibly to worry less about Dach’s return to action. Can we still hope that he’ll be back in time for the first game of the season? Of course, but we know Habs management won’t rush his return to action to ensure he’s as healthy as possible. spacer title=’Overtime’] – Don’t miss tonight’s episode of the Sick Podcast with Tony Marinaro:

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