Brutal footage shows a man snapping both his tendons and his knees ‘shooting up into his thighs.’
When the horrific incident happened, Dan Jones, from Weaverham in Northwich, Cheshire, was competing at a Strongman competition in Southport, U.K.
The senior IT analyst had made it through to the final, which involved carrying an 80kg weight 20 metres to the finish line.
Just seconds from making it to the finish line, Jones collapsed into a heap as he ruptured both patellar tendons, which join the thigh muscle to the shin bone, sending his kneecaps shooting up into his quads.
Then, he was rushed to the hospital.
After arriving at Leighton Hospital in Crewe, Cheshire, the dad-of-one was given painkillers before undergoing a five-hour operation to have his tendons fused back together.
He had to stay in the hospital and learn how to walk again.
Jones said: “The guy that I was racing against was in first place at the time, so I was having to beat him, which is why I was going as fast as I could.
“It was a freak accident, we’re still not 100 percent sure how it happened.
“After slowing down the video with doctors and surgeons, it looks like my right knee patellar tendon snaps out of nowhere, which causes my leg to fold underneath me.
“Then my left knee bends underneath me, and this tendon snaps on impact with the ground.
“I felt like I was on fire, my kneecaps were in my quads because my tendons ruptured.”
He continued: “During surgery, the doctors said they needed to fuse my tendons back together and make sure my ligaments underneath my knee were where they should be.
“They then needed to put two sutures into my shin and build an internal brace to help my body fuse the tendon back together as best it can.
“I was in bed and not able to move my legs. I was worried about everything. I was thinking, ‘Will I be able to walk again? How long will it take?’
“The best guess is potentially the stress of the day [caused the injury] as there is no real reason why it happened, because there were no signs, it was just a freak accident.
“The doctor said it was very rare to see two patellar tendons go at the same time.”
Jones also recalled the ‘deathly silence’ in the horrific moment he suffered his injury.
“The weirdest thing I remember is silence. The whole crowd was cheering everyone on, and then it went deathly silent, and I just lay on the floor,” he described.
“I was very upset, I had a chance of winning. We were very near to the end with 10 metres to go in the competition.
“I only needed three more seconds of running to finish the event.”
During Jones’ operation, he had an internal brace fitted to both legs to help in the recovery of his tendons, alongside daily physio sessions.
He also documented his journey on TikTok, sharing progress updates.
Jones is optimistic about recovering from the accident and hopes to return to competing in the future, if possible.
The dad-of-one explained: “The surgeon has said it could be the end of all the Strongman competitions, but it’s a case-by-case basis.
“He said it would be very rare that I’d be able to compete at the level I was again, but we don’t know until I start healing.
“My biggest goal is to be a dad and be able to chase my daughter around and play with her.
“I should be able to go to the gym and do aspects of the Strongman things.
“There is a chance I could still do their Strongman, but maybe not at the same I was before. I’m not going to give up on it [the dream].
“It has been horrendous, but I’ve got little goals to meet, such as standing up and moving around, and now my next goal is to try and stand unassisted.
“The only thing that is keeping me going is these little goals.”