Surgeon reveals Lucas’ wish, return timeline and cause of injury | OneFootball

Lucas Moura underwent surgery this Monday (4) to repair a complete rupture of the Achilles tendon in his right leg, suffered during the match against Bahia in the Brasileirão. The São Paulo midfielder now begins a long recovery period at the club.

The procedure was carried out by the medical team of the experienced Dr. Moisés Cohen, who told ESPN in an interview about the behind-the-scenes details of the surgery and the player’s words projecting a return to Tricolor.

“Yesterday (Sunday) he was, and all of us were, very sad. I was also watching the game and the moment I saw it, I got worried, so I came to the hospital at night to assist here. There was a very deep sense of sadness, he obviously let it out, cried and all that, and we suffer a lot from this too,” said Cohen.

“But today (Monday), after the surgery, he seemed a little more aware, a little more accepting of the situation and already talking about coming back, coming back by the end of the year. He said, ‘I want to come back for the final’, and I told him, ‘Very good, but São Paulo still has to win a lot of games to reach the final,’ joking with him.”

“But today the atmosphere is normal, like any post-op period. He really is an athlete with absurd dedication, he is very, very dedicated to all these things. We’ve already had experience with him involving his knee, ribs, and now this ankle issue, but let’s keep faith that things will go well, because he truly deserves it. More than any athlete who dedicates himself a lot, that athlete is Lucas,” continued the doctor, who also estimated an average recovery time.

“Lucas suffered an Achilles tendon injury (in the right leg), with avulsion from the bone. Therefore, surgery was performed to reattach this tendon, along with reinforcement that we also did. Objectively, in terms of time, we’re talking about around six months. Of course it varies from case to case, but six months would be the timing for him to return to training and, from there, return to his normal activity,” the specialist explained.

THE REASONS FOR THE NEW INJURY

“It wasn’t because of trauma. In fact, these injuries happen for two reasons. Either because chronically, that is, over the years, the athlete—which is very common—develops a bony prominence in the back region of the heel bone, indicating inflammatory processes from frequent overload, in addition to contact with the boot.”

“Over the years, over time, some situations predispose this injury. These are mainly explosive starts, where the calf muscle generally contracts quickly and the tendon, which is the continuation of that muscle attached to the bone, does not have the same elasticity as the muscle.”

“So it is as if it contracts and abruptly pulls this tendon. Either it ruptures in the middle of its body or it tears away. These avulsion injuries are generally related to these bursts, this explosive movement. And in this case, Lucas tries to burst forward, tries to make the movement, and the muscle contracts but the tendon doesn’t keep up.”

“So, in that moment it is pulled away from the bone, which already had a predisposition throughout life, over the years, with the formation of this prominence, which has a relatively common, popular name: Haglund’s deformity. So Haglund is this bony prominence, which indicates that there is overload in that region, and the tendon therefore already has some alteration.”

BACK TO PLAYING?

“Look, recently, in 2025, a publication came out showing exactly 16 players with Achilles tendon injuries who underwent the same technique we used today. And all of them returned to playing, professional players in Europe. And all of them came back.”

“Now, judging performance is difficult—how are you going to measure performance? By the number of goals he scores, by the number of runs he makes? It’s very difficult. But the expectation is positive. We also have several other high-performance athletes with Achilles tendon injuries. It’s very common among volleyball and basketball players because of jumping and explosive starts, and they do return to playing. Now, whether the level is the same, lower, or higher, that’s very difficult to say,” Moisés Cohen concluded.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇧🇷 here.