00:00This is the Injury Report, presented by NYU Langone Health.
00:04Let's talk about Aaron Judge, because Dr. Zai, he suffered a moderate strain of the soleus muscle in his right
00:10calf, as I explained.
00:11And for viewers who might not be familiar with that particular muscle, what role does it play in a baseball
00:16player's movement?
00:17And what makes an injury to the soleus potentially more complicated than a typical calf strain?
00:23Yeah, so the calf is made up of two main muscles, the gastroc, which is what most people actually strain,
00:30and then the soleus, which is the deeper muscle.
00:33So both of those connect to the Achilles and are important in the push-off.
00:40So in a baseball player, it's going to be that kind of twist and push-off in their explosiveness and
00:45their ability to run.
00:47So the reason why it's different than the gastroc is that, like I said, it is deeper and longer.
00:54And these tend to be a little trickier because there is a higher re-injury occurrence with these compared to
01:04gastrocs.
01:06And so it is something that can lead to a little bit more time away from playing.
01:12Last thing for me, Dr. Desai, look, regular people, non-athletes, they sometimes get this injury too.
01:19Would you treat, how would you treat this injury on a non-athlete?
01:24How would you treat this injury if this happened to a non-athlete?
01:27I feel like you guys ask me this all the time and I say the same thing in that I
01:31will treat them the same.
01:33In that I am always trying to get you guys back to activity first, but really shutting down, just like,
01:42you know, whether you're a professional baseball player or trying to brave the subway is very important.
01:48And so activity restriction is going to come first, making sure that if there is a hematoma or if there
01:54is a lot of bleeding in the muscle that we kind of immobilize you,
02:00either by aspirating the hematoma and putting you in a boot or putting you on crutches or heel lift or
02:07something like that, depending on the severity of the injury,
02:10and then gradually progressing in the same way.
02:14But it's very individual in terms of each person.
02:18It really depends on the amount of bleeding and where the injury is, whether it's in the muscle, where it
02:24has a really good blood supply,
02:26or if it's at that muscle-tendon junction, which takes a little bit longer.
