Kylian Mbappe, who is suffering from a posterior cruciate ligament injury in his left knee, has sought the help of prestigious French doctor Bertrand Sonnery-Cottet, one of the world’s most renowned traumatologists in the treatment of knee injuries in elite athletes.Sonnery-Cottet has extensive experience in this type of injury and has treated numerous top athletes. These include Zlatan Ibrahimovic, whom he operated on after his serious knee injury in 2022, and more recently the central defender Mouctar Diakhaby, who turned to the French specialist after suffering a serious injury following an incident with Tchouameni in a Valencia-Real Madrid match.
The surgeon has also maintained ties with Real Madrid for years, especially since he treated Karim Benzema in 2014. His reputation within European football has made him one of the go-to doctors when it comes to complex ligament injuries. Each year he performs more than 600 anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) and multi-ligament reconstructions. He has also had Neymar among his patients.
According to the European Society of Sports Traumatology, his day-to-day work focuses on the “exclusive treatment of muscle and soft tissue injuries of the knee”. He also serves as a consulting orthopedic surgeon at the Centre Orthopedique Santy, a FIFA centre of medical excellence located in Lyon.
One of the most striking cases of his career was the recovery of a skier, as Fernando Alvarez told MARCA, who suffered dislocation of both knees after a brutal fall at 120 km/h in competition. Sonnery-Cottet himself reported the case in an article published in 2019 in the scientific journal Orthopaedic Journal of Sports. In the study, he explains that the patient “was able to ski again four months after the accident” and that he managed to compete again 666 days (22 months) later with almost normal knees.
The skier – whose name does not appear in the scientific article – was Valentin Giraud Moine, born in Gap (France) and who before the injury had achieved two podiums in the Alpine Skiing World Cup. The accident occurred in Garmisch in January 2017, when he lost control and the impact against the fences caused a bilateral dislocation of the knee. After the diagnosis, he heard a discouraging prognosis: “At best, you will be able to be a ski instructor,” the athlete himself recalled in L’Equipe. However, he decided to put himself in the hands of the specialist from Lyon, who managed to return him to competition in the World Cup. “It’s a miracle of sports medicine,” the French doctor told the sports daily.
With this history and experience in complex ligament injuries, Mbappe is in the hands of one of the world’s most renowned specialists to treat his knee injury.
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