George is experiencing problems with damaged cartilage in his knee and is eating cartilage from the bones of his steak so that his knee will more readily heal. explain why he is not necessarily going to succeed in speeding up the repair of his knee.

The cartilage will be digested in the gastrointestinal tract to its nutrient components, such as glycine and proline. The cartilage will not be used wholesomely to repair the damage to his knee. The nutrients from the digested cartilage will be used variably across various metabolic processes in the body and not necessarily in the repair of the collagen alone. However, the same nutrients may contribute to the repair of the knee damage.