White has surgery to shave tibia

By Published On: April 29th, 2012Comments Off on White has surgery to shave tibia

Canadian slalom specialist Trevor White, has renewed hopes after undergoing successful knee surgery on April 20.

“(The recovery) is coming along super quick and super well,” said the Calgarian. “I can already bend (the knee) more than I could before surgery so I think it should be successful.”

White tore his anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) and broke off a piece of his tibia in 2006. He had surgery which repaired the ACL but the tibia grew back malformed. “My tibia grew back in sort of a horn and for the last three years I just assumed that was the condition of my knee and I’ll just deal with it,” explained White, 28. “I had an X-ray in the fall and there was the option to take it off, so basically (the surgeon) went into the back corner of my knee and shaved down the tibia and cleaned up a lot of the tissue that had been damaged from that piece.”

“It went well,” White said. “I’m weight bearing right now because they didn’t do anything structurally, they didn’t repair any ligaments or anything, so they said six to eight weeks for a full recovery.”

“You never want to have to get surgery,” said White, “But waking up every day and your knee is sore, and not being able to ski some events because it bothers your knee, and if there’s one less thing to worry about in skiing, than  (surgery) is a good thing.”

In addition to skiing pain free, White hopes to be able to race some giant slalom events.

“I haven’t skied much GS in the last five years since I tore my knee, only a handful of days, so I’d like to be able to do more events than just slalom.”

White won’t be alone in rehabbing his knee, as his brother Mike had ACL surgery a few days later performed by the same surgeon, Dr. Mark Heard, at the Banff Mineral Springs Hospital.

“Dr. Heard was pretty funny saying, ‘I should have just done you guys in the same day and have you both here, save you a trip and giving a two-for-one special,’ ” recounted White, whose brother Mike is a coach with Calgary Alpine.

“We live together so we were maybe going to interview some nannies for a week or something like that,” joked White. “No, I’m doing a lot better than I thought I would be so I can look after him a bit more.”

White is hoping to be able to participate in the team’s fitness testing in three weeks time.

White scored five times during the 2011 World Cup season, but just once last season, a 27th at Flachau.

Trevor White photo from Gepa

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About the Author: Hank McKee

In memoriam: The veteran of the staff, McKee started with Ski Racing in 1980. Over the seasons, he covered virtually every aspect of the sport, from the pro tours to junior racing, freestyle and World Cup alpine competition. He wrote the first national stories for many U.S. team stars, and was still around to report on their retirements. “Longevity has its rewards,” he said, “but it’s a slow process.”