How Josh Sullivan uses Kingsfield Fitness to Help Return to Play After Injury

January 4, 2020

Josh Sullivan

Josh Sullivan MLL

Josh Sullivan is a Professional Lacrosse player for the Colorado Mammoth in the NLL. He is originally from Red Deer, Alberta and has been with the team as a pro for 5 years now. The Mammoth play out of the Pepsi Center, which is the same arena that the Colorado Avalanche plays out of in downtown Denver, Colorado. Josh has a passion for the game of lacrosse and says playing professional lacrosse is the greatest feeling in the world.

Josh Sullivan

Injury

In March 2019, Josh suffered a potentially career-ending injury. He broke his tibia and fibula while playing an away game against the Calgary Roughnecks.

"It was just an awkward play where someone went to hit me and he caught me up high but he also ended up stepping on the outside of my leg. This buckled my ankle outwards and my knee inwards, and resulted in a fractured tibia and fibula."

Josh knew he faced an uphill battle as these injuries can often be upwards of a 6-month recovery to just feel 80% better. Josh had surgery a couple of days later and got two screws put in my tibia.

Recovery

Josh Sullivan Returns to MLL

Recovery time for a tibia fracture depends on how bad the fracture is and can take from four to six months to heal. Even after that time frame, daily maintenance is often required to be able to continue to perform at a high level.

When asked what the recovery was like, Josh said he spent lots of time in physical therapy.

"I had just over seventy physical therapy sessions, so I logged over a hundred hours of PT. Josh also performed stretching and massages as well as mobility exercises for his ankle."

Physical therapy can take a toll on athletes rehabbing from injury. For most, it is an ongoing effort to enable your body to be able to perform at a high level. This means daily exercise and health routines outside of just normal physical therapy.

Josh Meets Kingsfield Fitness

Josh reached out to Kingsfield Fitness and expressed interest in our active recovery products to help with his recovery and maintenance process once he got closer to being back to full strength.

"I definitely wish I had these products earlier on in my recovery stages. I use the Ultra Gun around my calf area because that tightens up after every floor time/workout. It helps loosen up my calf and in turn, helps with my mobility."

Kingsfield SPARK - Josh Sullivan

Josh was also able to use the Kingsfield SPARK to help with his recovery. "I also roll the bottom of my foot because it seems to ball up quite a bit as well."

Josh continues to use Kingsfield Fitness's innovative active recovery tools to help with his daily maintenance.

How is Josh Doing Now?

Josh is back playing the game he loves at the highest level.

"Fortunately I was able to make a 'full' recovery and return to playing professional lacrosse this season for our home opener over American Thanksgiving weekend."

As an athlete who has undergone surgery knows, there is no such thing as a full 100% recovery. Josh explains further.

"The reason I put full in quotation marks is I am still not back to my full range of motion in my ankle joint. I am stretching and using Kingsfield Fitness' tools to help me out with the and I am making progress!"