Poor David Beckham’s dreams of a fourth consecutive World Cup appearance disappeared in a ‘SNAP’
Beckham’s Achilles Tendon Rupture happened in a game just by stepping backwards. There was no-one else involved.
I am going to look at footage of David Beckham’s Achilles Tendon Rupture and analyse it for you.
At the end of this post you will have an understanding of how the Achilles and Calf muscle work and why Becks tore his tendon.

Watch the video below a few times and then read on for a full explanation.

Gastrocnemius – a ‘two-joint’ muscle

The Gastrocnemius muscle has it’s lower attachment to the Achilles tendon through which it is attached to the heel bone or Calcaneum. This means that it crosses the ankle joint.

The upper attachments of the Gastrocnemius muscle are attached to the lower thigh bone (femur) on either side of the back of the knee.
This means that it also crosses the knee joint.

Actions of the Gastrocnemius muscle :-

• Helps to bend the knee acting with the Hamstring muscles
• Also helps to stop the knee from straightening under load
• Points the foot downwards at the ankle / raise you up on your toes when standing
• Also controls the heel as it lowers under bodyweight

The reason that ‘two-joint’ muscles and their tendons are prone to injury is precisely because they are acting on two joints at once.
This extra load can result in them almost working against themselves in an uncontrolled fashion – just like us men they can’t do two things at once!!

Take another look at the video of Beckham’s Achilles Tendon Rupture below. All David does is step backwards with no-one around him!

When I say “all he does …” He takes quite a big step backwards and his ankle joint is particularly bent which stretches his Calf and Achilles, however there is nothing particularly violent or sudden about his movement – is there?
However look at this picture below:

In this freeze-frame, if you look closely you can see that his heel is off the ground, his knee is slightly bent. I have put some red lines parallel to his foot, shin and thigh to demonstrate these angles.

Now if you think about what his Gastrocnemius muscle is doing here – you can see that it is keeping his heel off the ground and also helping to keep his knee slightly bent. (Just take my word for it that the muscle is helping to keep the knee bent for a few sentences and then I’ll explain it further.)

He would want to keep his knee bent in this situation because he is about to push off his back leg and he can’t push off effectively with a stiff knee. He wants to use his Quadriceps and Gluteal muscles to push off and to do this his hip and knee joints need to be slightly flexed (bent) and this is achieved by using his Hamstrings and Gastrocnemius muscles together.

Now look at the picture below. This is 80 milliseconds later (trust me I took it off the video editor!)

Poor Becks’ Achilles has just snapped!!

As a result he can’t hold his heel off the ground and also he can’t keep his knee flexed!
This means that instead of pushing off and moving forward, his knee shoots backwards to slightly beyond straight – what is called hyperextension.

It is the loss of function in his Gastrocnemius (because it’s lower attachment has become torn) that causes his knee to hyperextend.
Again I have included the red lines to help you see what is happening at the knee and ankle joints.

Why did David Beckham’s Achilles Tendon Rupture?

He possibly either had some pre-existing problem with his Achilles ( I recall he had a problem with the right Achilles in the World Cup against Portugal in July 2006 and it’s not uncommon to get both sides affected) or he has been particularly unlucky – but you can now see how much force can be generated by the calf muscles if they work against themselves for a fraction of a second at exactly the wrong moment!

Patients with a torn Achilles generally do not report significant pain – they hear a “SNAP” and they feel as though they have been struck from behind! If you watch David’s reaction carefully you see that his first thought is to look behind himself to see who has just kicked him! Watch his reaction in the video!!

He then sees that no-one is there and tries to continue with the game. He actually steps backwards again onto the left foot but this time his foot is turned outwards. This means that he actually doesn’t need to use his calf muscle or Achilles. It is only when he steps forwards and realises that there is no forward propulsion coming from his calf, and then when he goes to put his left foot down and realises that he can’t point his foot that he knows there is a major problem and his World Cup dream is over…

Watch the whole thing again with your new-found insight – watch for him looking round to see who “kicked” him and then especially look out for the knee snapping backwards when the Achilles tears.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The surgery apparently went really well and we all hope the he gets back to full fitness in a few months – but unfortunately not in time for the World Cup

Other Achilles Related Posts

This post explains the

• anatomy of the calf and Achilles
• structure of the Achilles Tendon
• factors affecting rupture of the tendon

What is the Achilles Tendon?

Well it’s the long cord that attaches your calf muscles to the heel bone (Calcaneum) at the back of your lower leg.

It comes in all shapes and sizes – from long and thin to short and thick but they all do the same job – transfer forces from the calf muscles to the foot and vice versa. I say muscles because you have two muscle groups in the calf and they both perform slightly differing functions.

Gastrocenmius muscle gives the calf its distinct shape. This muscle itself has two distinct parts (heads) to it – medial and lateral.

These heads are attached to either side of the back of the knee and actually cross the knee joint to be attached to the lower end of the thigh bone (femur) by strong flat tendons.

The medial head is larger than the lateral which can sometimes be absent although I don’t think I’ve ever seen it.  The terms medial and lateral are explained in the Medical Terms Explained post.

The two heads come together about half way down the lower leg and blend with a sheet of fibrous tissue (aponeurosis) which joins onto the tendon of the third muscle –Soleus.

Soleus is attached to the upper ends of two lower leg bones namely the tibia and fibula and so is deep to the gastrocnemius muscle. From here its fibres pass posteriorly to its tendon which blends with the gastrocnemius and other fibres extend further down the leg to attach directly to the Achilles tendon almost to its lower end.

Achilles tendon (or more correctly tendocalcaneus) is the thickest and strongest human tendon. It begins near the middle of the lower leg and reaches up to 15cm long before attaching to the heel bone (calcaneus).

This diagram shows the back of the leg with the gastrocnemius muscle cut away to show the deeper Soleus muscle in its entirety.

The Gastrocnemius muscle sits over the upper part of the Soleus. There is another muscle which is small and this called Plantaris (this can be absent in many people).

Plantaris is not shown in the diagrams but it starts on the lateral side of the femur and passes obliquely down the leg to attach to the medial side of the Achilles tendon or directly onto the medial aspect of the heel bone (calcaneus).

STRUCTURE OF ACHILLES TENDON

The tendon consists of budles of connective tissue fibres called type 1 collagen fibres. Collagen is the main structural protein in the body which provides the strength to the tendon. Collagen is present in bone, tendons, cartilage and scar tissue. The tendon is between 4mm and 6mm thick, it does not contract and it can handle forces up to 12.5 times bodyweight. By my calculations that is over a ton for someone weighing just under 13 stones!!

RUPTURE OF ACHILLES TENDON

This generally takes place 2 – 5 centimetres above the insertion of the tendon into the calcaneum. It generally ruptures with and audible ‘snap’ and patients report being struck on the back of the leg by an object and turn to find nothing and no-one there. There is actually not a great deal of pain with a total tear. If it is painful then that may be a sign that the tear is only partial.

Factors contributing to rupture of the Achilles Tendon are

• high velocity sports – to otherwise healthy tendons
• pre-existing damage to the tendon
• age related degenerative changes in tendon
• rheumatoid arthritis
• Certain antibiotics (Fluoroquinolones are often used for genitourinary infections)

You now have an understanding of where the Achilles Tendon is and what it is made of, and what muscles are attached to it.
You know where the tendon ruptures and what factors may cause a rupture.

Other Achilles Related Posts