Kade Ruotolo books MMA return against Ok Rae Yoon after ACL surgery

Kade Ruotolo will fight Ok Rae Yoon at ONE FN 50 on Friday 18 December. It will be his first bout after eight months out following reconstruction of a torn ACL suffered in training.

Kade Ruotolo returns to MMA against Ok Rae Yoon at ONE FN 50 on Friday 18 December.

The bout ends eight months on the sidelines for Ruotolo, who tore his ACL while preparing for an MMA fight and needed surgery to reconstruct it. He said it was the worst injury of his life and the longest he had spent away from training and the water, adding that time out is hard on the mind for anyone who uses their body for a living.

Ruotolo said his first instinct was to break recovery records and be back within three to six months. His medical team persuaded him otherwise, and he recalled them telling him: “Yeah, yeah, it’s great, but we just want that thing to be the strongest ACL possible.” That message resonated, he said, because returning faster than anyone else would mean little if the knee then ended his career.

He said the hardest stretch eventually had less to do with the knee itself than with hitting a plateau where he could do nothing. He noticed his low mood affecting the people around him and said an athlete's identity is bound up in their work.

The turning point came when he went surfing for the first time since the operation and did some light training. Ruotolo said it felt as though a cloud that had hung over him during the months of inactivity had finally lifted.

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