The famous crosses are often, for athletes, synonymous with the end of the season, unavailability for months. Rodri, the new golden ball, at Manchester City, but also Dani Carvajal and Eder Militao at Real Madrid, for example, had the bitter experience, to name but a few.
Until now, there were only types of splints that block the knee to prevent it from rotating and pulling too much on the famous cruciate ligaments. This is a flexible knee pad, which allows full mobility, except that it is full of sensors. As soon as they detect a twist or too much tension on the knee. They inflate a protective cushion all around. This will re-stabilize the knee, release pressure on the ligaments and prevent them from tearing. The London start-up Hippos Exoskeleton has just presented this system, this November. According to her, it can prevent up to 80% of cruciate ligament ruptures.
We know that on average, it takes 60 milliseconds for a ligament to tear. Their airbag will deploy in 25 milliseconds, more than twice as fast. Then it instantly deflates. So we immediately regain our mobility. Which is important for maintaining balance when landing from a jump, for example.
We asked the question of “false positives”. According to their statistics, it only happened six times out of 4,000. So the probability is very low but it exists. This is why development and testing in real situations will be very important. They already work with the Crystal Palace Football Club in England, the Basketball League in Spain, skiers and the Chinese Olympic team. The objective is to collect as much information as possible to calibrate the device as best as possible, before marketing it in spring 2025.
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