Ruotolo Calls ACL Layoff the Toughest Stretch of His Life

Kade Ruotolo has a date for his MMA return. He faces Ok Rae Yoon at ONE Fight Night 50 on Friday, December 18.

It will be his first fight since a torn ACL that needed surgical reconstruction. He suffered the injury while training for an MMA bout, and the recovery took eight months.

Ruotolo calls it the toughest stretch of his athletic life. The toll was mental as well as physical.

"This was for sure the gnarliest injury I can say that I've had in my life and the most time off the mats, the most time out the water, most time of everything… Obviously anytime you go through those down times, mentally it's tough on the mind, especially when you use your body for a living."

Not chasing a record

His first instinct was to beat recovery records and be back in three to six months. His medical team talked him out of it.

"After talking to you guys, you guys are like: 'Yeah, yeah, it's great, but we just want that thing to be the strongest ACL possible.' And that was what really resonated with me… Because if I come back faster than anyone and retire it, what's the point?"

Around the three-to-four month mark, the struggle moved from the knee to his mindset.

"It wasn't so much about my knee anymore and I was just hit with that plateau of couldn't do anything, just kind of bummed. I could tell my energy was reflecting on the people around me too… As an athlete your identity is what you do for work."

He said that when you stop being an athlete for eight months, you sit back and reflect on your whole character. "Who am I?" was the question.

A surf session in Costa Rica

The turning point came in Costa Rica, where he went surfing for the first time since the surgery. He even trained a little.

"Super mellow, but trained a little bit. I just felt like that cloud was finally removed of the not being able to do anything. That little cloud above me just was gone."

Source: BJJEE