Also, there are studies that indicate that having a reconstruction may not predict whether you can continue in a sport. Having a reconstruction made no difference to who was playing seven years after their injury. To this day we do not have good explanations to tell you why some people can manage well despite an ACL injury. The reports are often conflicting about what the relative consequences of having or not having surgery means to the person with the injured knee. But only 2 people out of nearly 100 had any pain in their knee because of it.
Surgeries can fail .
For example, it was the big game for our university football team. One of our defensive line had an ACL reconstruction a year ago and was back to great form. He was just back pedalling with nobody around. His knee gave out and he limped to the sidelines. His knee was no longer reconstructed.