More recently, further research has shown that a new type of non-surgical rehabilitation programme, which is quicker than the traditional non-surgical programme, gave a tendon re-rupture rate that was similar to that after surgical treatment. This new rehabilitation programme uses a walking boot fitted with a heel-raise (instead of the traditional plaster). The potential benefit of this quicker rehabilitation programme is that it allows the patient to put weight through the leg immediately, whereas patients treated with the traditional plaster cast non-surgical treatment cannot weight bear (this means that they are kept non-weightbearing and therefore have to use crutches) for the first 8 weeks. Later on in the programme, it also allows the patient to remove the boot to undertake supervised exercises with a physiotherapist, which cannot be done with a plaster. Finally, the time spent in the walking boot in this new, quicker rehabilitation programme is 8 weeks while that spent in plaster is 10 weeks. This new non-surgical, quicker rehabilitation programme is referred to as the accelerated non-surgical programme hereafter. There are no known increased risks with the accelerated rehabilitation programme.