“McDavid was initially diagnosed with a Grade 2 PCL strain because of all the swelling around his knee. A second medical opinion in Colorado revealed the full PCL tear, plus a torn meniscus on both sides of the knee, cracked fibia and a popliteus muscle that was torn right off the bone.”
“While the surgery was booked, McDavid sought a third medical opinion in Los Angeles. That doctor confirmed the nature of the injury, but recommended rehab over surgery — a decision that led to highly respected Dr. Mark Lindsay being brought in to oversee a fluid recovery process, and helped return McDavid back to health in time for the season.“
I find it extremely hard to believe they missed this when doing their research if a simple “NHL popliteus injury” search resulted in this article being one of the first to pop up.
There are also articles using the same wording that McDavid’s popliteus muscle was “detached” and the nature of his injured knee was career threatening. Don’t get me wrong it is still rare, but definitely not true there weren’t any cases when there was one as recent as 4 years ago.