{"id":387135,"date":"2026-04-19T10:50:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-19T10:50:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/387135\/"},"modified":"2026-04-19T10:50:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T10:50:13","slug":"how-knee-pain-can-be-fixed-with-exercise-rather-than-surgery-as-a-rugby-player-found","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/387135\/","title":{"rendered":"How knee pain can be fixed with exercise rather than surgery, as a rugby player found"},"content":{"rendered":"<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Knee replacement surgery is one of the most common procedures globally. In 2023, about 3.6 million knee replacements were performed worldwide, overtaking hip implants in the joint replacement market.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Ageing populations, rising obesity rates and significant technological advancements all contribute to the increase in knee operations. They are even being performed more frequently on younger patients.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Given the significant recovery time and the finite longevity of the hardware \u2013 82 per cent of replacements last 25 years on average, according to a 2019 study \u2013 many patients and healthcare professionals now view surgery as a milestone to be delayed or avoided through viable alternatives.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Recent research suggests that for some, exercise may be the best option.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">This was the case for former Hong Kong rugby team player and DeA Tigers scrum-half Rob Naylor, a keen runner who prioritised movement over medicine. He started feeling knee pain after running the Mount Fuji 100 in 2024, a 161km (100-mile) ultra-marathon in Japan.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Former Hong Kong rugby team player Rob Naylor (centre) plays rugby in 2008. Photo: K.Y. Cheng\" data-qa=\"BaseImage-handleRenderImage-StyledImage\" class=\"e1gf69pb2 css-6ikqhs e445x7d0\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/cd7528f5-7dfd-4e43-ba1a-039fa398aa3a_dfd79892.jpg\" title=\"Former Hong Kong rugby team player Rob Naylor (centre) plays rugby in 2008. Photo: K.Y. Cheng\"\/>Former Hong Kong rugby team player Rob Naylor (centre) plays rugby in 2008. Photo: K.Y. Cheng<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Having experienced minor knee injuries in his rugby days, he hoped the pain would subside. After weeks with no change, he visited senior physiotherapist Tim McCosker at CoreOFit Physiotherapy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Knee replacement surgery is one of the most common procedures globally. In 2023, about 3.6 million knee replacements&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":387136,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[52296,85,275,200563,200564,565,3597,134,4431,15258,1759,200562,200570,31376,106888,200568,200565,160697,111,139,69,1881,200569,154668,6290,200567,200566,2766],"class_list":{"0":"post-387135","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fitness","8":"tag-acl","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-coreofit-physiotherapy","12":"tag-dea-tigers","13":"tag-fitness","14":"tag-fix","15":"tag-health","16":"tag-hong-kong","17":"tag-injury","18":"tag-japan","19":"tag-jasmine-chan","20":"tag-joint-dynamics","21":"tag-knee-pain","22":"tag-knee-replacement","23":"tag-koscimiler","24":"tag-mount-fuji","25":"tag-new-england-journal-of-medicine","26":"tag-new-zealand","27":"tag-newzealand","28":"tag-nz","29":"tag-recovery","30":"tag-rob-naylor","31":"tag-sports-injury","32":"tag-surgery","33":"tag-the-bmj","34":"tag-tim-mccosker","35":"tag-treatment"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387135","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=387135"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387135\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/387136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=387135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=387135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=387135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}