Will Todd Gurley be ready to go? plus thoughts on Clowney

Monday Morning MD: Will Todd Gurley be ready to go?

Dr. David Chao

http://www.nationalfootballpost.com/monday-morning-md-articular-cartilage-is-the-holy-grail/

When asked if his first-round pick coming off ACL surgery would be ready for training camp, Rams head coach Jeff Fisher said, “It’s hard to say right now.” A key to whether he plays early season will be if he starts the year on the PUP list.

Everyone cites Adrian Peterson’s quick return after his ACL tear. That is an unfair comparison for Gurley. First, not all ACL injuries are the same. The associated cartilage, meniscus and ligament damage is rarely reported so we don’t know the true extent of injury. Second, in orthopedics, data shows that up to 95% of athletes can return to their same level. Gurley is not being asked to return to his same collegiate level, but make the jump to the NFL. He has two hurdles to clear in his rookie year.

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from off the net

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RockRam

Well, a 5% risk is as close to no risk as you can get. The Doc says 95% of ACL first-time tear guys can come all they way back to normal. But that it also depends on other injury involvement. Dr. Andrews as I recall said that Gurley’s was clean, no cartilage involvement, it was a partial tear, no other ligament or tendon involvement. Fisher reiterated it. So as far as injury recovery is concerned, no worries. And Fisher is ultra conservative with injury rehab anyway.

Thus, according to the Doc, the risk is 5% that he won’t fully recover from it and be no more susceptible to re-injury than if he never had it. And apparently that 5% is for the worst case scenarios and all the rehab accidents, infections, etc. And Gurley is apparently long past all of that.

But, wow, when you read about Clowney the Doc says it’s about as bad as it gets (and I guess for the Broncos Travathian as well). That he knows of no player, ever, who has had long term success coming back from this injury, after the microfracture procedure, with the cartilage torn all the way through, and that even if he has a couple of good years his playing life will no doubt be limited to his first contract barring some unheard of miracle.

What in the world was Houston thinking? All the warning signs were there. Docs warned. Current and former players even warned that they didn’t think he had the heart or want-to…..forget the injury. He had limited college production. And then Houston bets the farm and makes him the 1st pick in the draft? And he plays in a few games, does about what he did in college (not much), and then it’s onto IR and probably a career altering, early career ending procedure for an injury he already had coming in but it was made worse. Yikes.