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Sports medicine experts said Texans running back Arian Foster just has bad luck.
Achilles tears are common in sports with quick, explosive motion and there's not much athletes can do to prevent them from happening.
In Sunday’s Texans game, a cut Foster made across the field cut his season short -- his Achilles snapped.
"The calf muscle is trying to contract while there’s a force that bends the ankle up, so there's a tendon that is being pulled apart and it will rupture right in the middle," Dr. Carl Palumbo said.
Palumbo, from the Orthopedic Sports Clinic in Houston, said explosive movement is to blame, not Foster's diet or past injuries. He said he sees it happen often in athletes who go from standing to full speed in an instant.
"Like basketball, tennis, gymnastics. Those are the sports we commonly see them," Palumbo said.
Sometimes players don't recover the dynamic speed and movement fans have come to admire in Foster, but Palumbo said with months of rehab, they can get close.
"A very strict but aggressive therapy program is important in these types of athletes in order to regain the ability to accelerate and explode on the field," Palumbo said.
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