Livvy Dunne injury update: Jay Clark reveals chances LSU star returns to competition

Star LSU gymnast Livvy Dunne missed a meet against Georgia over the weekend due to injury. On Monday, head coach Jay Clark provided an update.

Dunne is dealing with a somewhat unique injury. And she’s not entirely sure how she suffered it.

“It’s about pain. It’s about her pain. It’s an unusual thing,” Clark said. “I had to look it up. I didn’t even know what the retinaculum in your knee was. And generally speaking the little, she put it on social media, so it’s OK I guess for me to talk about it. But the little avulsion fracture that she has, she and I were talking about it yesterday, that generally happens to people who have been in a car accident or some sort of blunt force trauma that has… and she can’t recall anything like that.”

The retinaculum in the knee is a fibrous band of tissue whose function is to help stabilize the kneecap. Livvy Dunne is having issues there.

There’s also an avulsion fracture of the kneecap itself. It is not a fun injury to be coping with.

“It’s an extremely unusual thing that she’s dealing with and it just hurts,” Clark said. “She can force herself to function with it, but it’s very painful. And trying to figure out how do we get her comfortable? So we shut her down and immobilized it to try to get it to calm down. I think there’s been some progress, and I still remain cautiously optimistic that she could become available again, at least on bars. But it’s just hard to say.”

The high-profile athlete is one of the most recognizable names in the sport, in part due to her stature as one of the biggest winners in the NIL space. Livvy Dunne has deals with Vuori, among other prominent brands.

Of course, she’d love nothing more than to be competing with her team. There’s still a possibility for that to happen.

“I think we’ve got another follow-up this week and just trying to monitor it and turn over every rock we can to try to get her at a place where she’s comfortable,” Clark said. “Because she started out the year in a really good spot for us and contributed on three events and was, in many ways, doing as much or more than she had done ever, at any point in her career, as an old lady.”

The LSU head coach praised his star athlete, though, for her outlook on the entire ordeal. Livvy Dunne’s approach has been aces.

“The thing about Liv is her attitude has been so good about it, and she’s been staying engaged and supportive of her teammates and not allowing it to sour her experience so much, at least outwardly,” Clark said. “I’m sure it’s not ideal in her mind. But she’s done a great job of, again, like we always talk about: embrace the rule your find yourself in and be the best you possibly could be, and she’s doing that.”