Aaron Rodgers’ rapid recovery from an Achilles tendon tear on just the fourth play of his debut season with the New York Jets in 2023 has set a new benchmark for athlete recoveries.
This resilience has inspired other professional athletes, including two-time Masters champion Bernhard Langer, to accelerate their own return to competition.
Bernhard Langer, a legendary figure in golf, has an illustrious career highlighted by Masters victories in 1985 and 1993, and membership in the World Golf Hall of Fame. As of 2023, at 66 years old, he claimed his latest win at the U.S. Senior Open and holds the record for the most PGA Tour Champions victories with 46.
However, Langer faced a major setback in February when he tore his Achilles while playing pickleball. Mirroring Rodgers’ approach, he opted for ‘SpeedBridge’ surgery within just 20 hours of the injury, consulting a surgeon in Miami to facilitate a swift recovery. Rodgers had his surgery in Los Angeles, showcasing the broad applicability of this procedure in sports medicine.
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Only three months post-injury, Langer is set to compete at the PGA Tour Champions’ Insperity Invitational at The Woodlands Country Club in Texas. His journey and rapid recovery have been significantly influenced by Rodgers, as Langer revealed in an interview with Mark Cannizzaro at The Post. He expressed how discussions with Rodgers about the quarterback’s recovery process and rehabilitation exercises greatly encouraged him.
“I was able to talk to Aaron about it two weeks ago. We talked for about almost an hour. He loves golf. I told him I follow him and football and he said he follows me, too. We talked about the rehab and doing certain exercises and what he went through and what I’m going through.”
Langer noted the motivational boost he received from hearing about Rodgers’ quick progress back to form, seeing it as a major source of inspiration given their age difference, with Rodgers at 40 and Langer at 66.
Now, Langer enters the Insperity Invitational with odds at +3500, just three months after his Achilles injury—an extraordinary testament to the advancements in sports recovery and the power of peer support among elite athletes.
