Radamel Falcao sustained this type of injury in Argentina prior to coming to Europe I think. Didnt stop him from killing in portugal and spain. Its a different sport, but for those that follow NFL, Tom Brady blew out his knee and came back the season after and won MVP.
QB’s almost always come back fine from ACL, especially pocket passers who rarely run like Brady. Not a good example.
There was an article not so long ago on American football players after suffering ACL ruptures, and in positions like RB, WR, DB, etc, positions that require accerelation, speed, agility, lateral quickness, the vast majority drop at least a level or two post-injury and have shortened career expectancies by a couple years. A pro-bowl player becomes a league average player and instead of say an 8 year career, he lasts 6 years.
For a counterpoint though, Adrian Peterson, came back extremely quickly from his ACL injury (starting games 8 months after, when usually in NFL timeline is a year) and had one of the best seasons by a RB ever.
The odds are against any player in these sports who suffers an ACL rupture ever getting back to his best, but it does happen, and hopefully Merih is driven to be one of the exceptions to the rule.
- - - Updated - - -
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2017/may/11/acl-injuries-sports-athletes-careers