Excruciating footage shows the grim moment a Strongman snapped both tendons, causing his kneecaps to ‘shoot up into his thighs’.
Dan Jones was competing in a Strongman final in Southport on 1 September when he had to carry 80kg for 20 meters to the finish line.
But just seconds from making it, the dad collapsed in a heap. In a pretty uncomfortable watch, the video shows the moment he ruptured both patellar tendons.
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The 29-year-old had been training to compete in Strongman since the beginning of the year, finishing first place in the First Time category at the Manchester Strongman competition in July.
For his training, Jones worked out eight hours a week, eating a 4,500-calorie high-protein and high-carb diet that allowed him to tip the scales at a mega 136kg [21st 4lbs] when he competed.
If he’d won this event, he could have won his category, and was going as fast as he could at the time because he was in the race with the person in first place.
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Originally from Weaverham, Northwich, Jones said it ‘was a freak accident’ and they’re still not certain 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,” he said.
"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.
"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.”
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The bloke explained he only needed ‘three more seconds of running’ to finish and knows if he’d finished ‘there was a chance he could have won’.
He was rushed to hospital where he received painkillers before undergoing a five-hour op to have his tendons fused back together.
Jones has now been in hospital for three weeks and needs to learn how to walk again.
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The patellar tendon joins the thigh muscle to the shin bone, it helps straighten the knee for movements such as walking and going up and down stairs.
Doctors told him it was ‘very rare’ to see two patellar tendons go at the same time and they said he won’t be able to walk without assistance until at least February next year.
It’s uncertain if Jones will be able to compete again, but he’s said the scary ordeal hasn’t put him off taking part in future Strongman competitions if he's able to.
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While he has hopes of representing England in the Open Strongman competition in five years' time, he said: "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."
Jones described the whole process as ‘horrendous’ but he’s been making goals from standing up to standing unassisted.
"The only thing that is keeping me going is these little goals,” he added.
Jess Battison