A dad claims his kneecaps shot up into his thighs after he snapped both tendons while competing in a Strongman final. Dan Jones had been competing at a Strongman competition in Southport on September 1 and made it through to the final, which involved carrying 80kg 20 metres to the finish line.
Horrifying footage shows Dan racing along, just seconds from the finish line, before collapsing in a heap as he ruptures both patellar tendons, sending his kneecaps shooting up into his quads. The 29-year-old senior IT analyst was rushed to Leighton Hospital in Crewe, Cheshire, where he was given painkillers before undergoing a gruelling five-hour op to have his tendons fused back together.
The dad-of-one, who’s been in hospital for three weeks and has to learn how to walk again, hopes to be discharged from hospital before his 30th birthday next month. The patellar tendon joins the thigh muscle to the shin bone, it helps straighten the knee for movements such as walking and going up and down stairs.
While it’s uncertain if 5ft 11in Dan will be able to compete again he says his injuries have not put him off taking part in future Strongman competitions if he’s able to. Dan, from Weaverham in Northwich, Cheshire, said: “I was going into the last event in second place.
“If I had won this event there was a chance I could have won my category and if I had come second I would have come second overall out of 16 people. The guy that I was racing against was in first place at the time so I was having to beat him, which is why I was going as fast as I could.
“It was a freak accident, we’re still not 100 percent sure how it happened. After slowing down the video with doctors and surgeons, it looks like my right knee patellar tendon snaps out of nowhere, which causes my leg to fold underneath me.
“Then my left knee bends underneath me and this tendon snaps on impact with the ground. I felt like I was on fire, my kneecaps were in my quads because my tendons ruptured. The weirdest thing I remember is silence. The whole crowd was cheering everyone on and then it went deathly silent and I just lay on the floor.
“I was very upset, I had a chance of winning. We were very near to the end with 10 metres to go in the competitions. I only needed three more seconds of running to finish the event.
“In the video it showed that I was slightly in front of him when I went down so I knew if I had finished the event there was a chance I could have won.”
Dan started training to compete in Strongman in January this year and came first in the First Time category at the Manchester Strongman competition in July. For training, he worked out eight hours a week and ate a 4,500-calorie high-protein and high-carb diet that allowed him to tip the scales at 136kg [21st 4lbs] when he competed.
During his operation, Dan had an internal brace fitted to both legs to help aid the recovery of his tendons and is attending physio sessions every day. He’s now documenting his recovery journey on TikTok, posting a daily video update from hospital each day.
Dan said: “During surgery the doctors said they needed to fuse my tendons back together and make sure my ligaments underneath my knee were where they should be. They then needed to put two sutures into my shin and build an internal brace to help my body fuse the tendon back together as best it can.
“I was in bed and not able to move my legs, I was worried about everything. [I was thinking’ ‘Will I be able to walk again? How long will it take?’
“The best guess is potentially the stress of the day [caused the injury] as there is no real reason why it happened because there were no signs, it was just a freak accident. The doctor said it was very rare to see two patellar tendons go at the same time.”
Once Dan is able to stand on his own and use the toilet unassisted he will be discharged from hospital but has been told he won’t be able to walk without assistance until at least February next year.
Dan has hopes of representing England in the Open Strongman competition in five years’ time but following his injuries surgeons have said this may not be possible. Despite this, Dan is still hopeful to recover from his accident and get back to the gym and return to competing in future if he can.
Dan said: “The surgeon has said it could be the end of all the Strongman competitions but it’s a case by case basis. He said it would be very rare that I’d be able to compete at the level I was again, but we don’t know until I start healing.
“My biggest goal is to be a dad and be able to chase my daughter around and play with her. I should be able to go to the gym and do aspects of the Strongman things.
“There is a chance I could still do their Strongman but maybe not at the same I was before. I’m not going to give up on it [the dream]. It has been horrendous but I’ve got little goals to meet such as standing up and moving around and now my next goal is to try and stand unassisted. The only thing that is keeping me going is these little goals.”
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