by A dad claims his knee shot up into his thigh after severing both tendons while competing in a Strongman final. Dan Jones competed at the Strongman competition in Southport on 1 September and made the final, which involved carrying 80kg 20 meters to the finish line.
Horrific footage shows Dan racing ahead, just seconds from the finish line, before collapsing in a heap, rupturing both patellar tendons, sending his knee shooting up into his quad. The 29-year-old senior IT analyst was rushed to Leighton Hospital in Crewe, Cheshire, where he was given painkillers before undergoing a grueling five-hour operation to fuse his tendons back together.
The man’s father, who has been in hospital for three weeks and has to learn how to walk again, hopes to be released before his 30th birthday next month. The patellar tendon connects the thigh muscle to the shin bone, it helps straighten the knee for movements such as walking and going up and down stairs.
Although it is not certain whether Dan 5ft 11 will be able to compete again he says that his injuries have not prevented him from participating in future Strongman competitions if he is able. 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 would have won my category and if I had been second I would have come second out of 16 people. The guy I was racing against was in first place at that time. I had to beat him, and that’s 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, my right knee patellar tendon seems to pop out of nowhere, which that makes my foot spin under my back.
“Then my left knee bends under me and this tendency is affecting the ground. I felt like I was on fire, my knees were in my quads because my tendons had ruptured. The strangest thing is I remember that silence. The whole crowd was laughing everyone on and then it went deathly silent and I just lay on the floor.
“I was very upset, I had a chance to win. We were very close to the end with 10 meters to go in the competitions. I only needed three more seconds to complete 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 would 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, high-carb diet that allowed him to tip the scales at 136kg. [21st 4lbs] when he was competing.
During his surgery, Dan was fitted with an internal brace on both legs to help rehabilitate his tendons and is attending physio sessions every day. He is now documenting his recovery journey on TikTok, posting a daily video update from the hospital every day.
Dan said: “During the surgery the doctors said they had to fuse my tendons back together and make sure my ligaments under my knee were where they should be. Then they had to put in two stitches in my shin and build an internal brace to help my body fuse the tendon back together as best as possible.
“I was in bed and unable 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] because 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 unaided he will be released from hospital but has been told he will not be able to walk unaided until at least February next year.
Dan hopes to represent England in the Open Strongman competition in five years’ time but after being injured surgeons have said this may not be possible. Despite this, Dan remains hopeful that he will recover from the accident and return to the gym and possibly compete in the future.
Dan said: “The surgeon has said it could be the end of all Strongman competitions but it’s a case-by-case basis. He said it was very rare that I would be able to compete at the level which I was again, but we do not know that I will begin to heal.
“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 some of the Strongman stuff. do.
“There’s a chance I could still do Strongman but maybe not like I was before. I’m not going to give up [the dream]. It was horrible but I have a few goals to accomplish such as standing up and moving around and now my next goal is to try and stand unaided. The only thing keeping me going are these little goals.”
