Mac Jones Injury Watch - Update 30 Sept - Mac is out v Packers

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I'm not a doctor but I did learn a lot about ankle sprains a couple of months ago.
I didn't know that there were 3 levels of sprains until then. Most of the stains that I've had over the years were level 1 sprains and were better in a week.
A couple of months ago I had a level 2 sprain. It wasn't so much the swelling which was bad, it was the stability of the ankle which was about 3 weeks even with a walking boot. I could walk on it right off but very carefully.

A level 3 sprain means that the tendon is torn and you can't walk on it. From seeing how Mac could not walk on it and was in severe pain, it looks to my nonprofessional eyes that this is a level 3 sprain. I'm expecting that he won't be playing for a a month or more. I hope that I'm wrong.
 
ParanoidPatriot said:
I'm not a doctor but I did learn a lot about ankle sprains a couple of months ago.
I didn't know that there were 3 levels of sprains until then. Most of the stains that I've had over the years were level 1 sprains and were better in a week.
A couple of months ago I had a level 2 sprain. It wasn't so much the swelling which was bad, it was the stability of the ankle which was about 3 weeks even with a walking boot. I could walk on it right off but very carefully.

A level 3 sprain means that the tendon is torn and you can't walk on it. From seeing how Mac could not walk on it and was in severe pain, it looks to my nonprofessional eyes that this is a level 3 sprain. I'm expecting that he won't be playing for a a month or more. I hope that I'm wrong.
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That's what I'm seeing, 6-8 weeks. It may as well have been season ending.
 
If it's just ligaments and he's out for a longish period of time, even for the season, that will actually be OK as ligament strains fully heal and it will have no bearing on his future mobility.

If he could be back by Thanksgiving, great, a couple of weeks before, wonderful.

Really, if it's just ligaments, that's great, that will need minimum care and management.
 
www.footankledc.com

The 3 Stages of Ankle Sprain Recovery

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RICE. Rest, ice, compression and elevation initially. 4-5 days usually.
Once the pain and swelling is gone he can begin active rehab to maintain flexibility of motion.
He can wear an ankle brace with tape to play before it's fully "healed". I use quotation marks for healed bc ligaments don't really heal the way bones or skin do. Once torn, the ligament doesn't have the blood supply necessary to regain the strength it had prior to the injury which is why some need Sx to transplant a ligament for adequate strength for the job they have to do. Athletes require more strength than other people. Once the fibers are torn, they are torn for life and each successive sprain (tear) weakens the ligament further.
 
The good news is that it's his left leg. It matters, in terms of his drop speed and depth, and if the pain/hesitancy impacts his follow through. But if it were his right and there were pain or instability on his plant/push foot, it's a much bigger problem.

With the left, the impact on pocket movement is real, but the only real impact on the throw should be that he'd have to make an adjustment for any loss of follow-through from the pain. Else the ball can sail on him.

All that's assuming he's not dealing with structural problems; that it can support weight with manageable pain once the swelling goes down, of course. If you're talking about an L3 or even an L2 all that goes out the window until he's at that stage of his recovery where it matters.
 
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Is he getting a second opinion to see if he needs surgery?
 
The way he was hopping of the field, the photo that I saw of him going into the locker room, makes me believe that it's a level 3 sprain. Sometime the tendon is torn enough to require surgery to repair it.. If it is, then I'm not optimistic about his only missing 4 weeks.
But he does have the best medical treatment available to him, and he will get that every day. Perhaps they can do more for it than we civilians can get and get him back quicker.
 
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This will get really interesting when Zappe goes up against the dregs of the NFL over the next 8 weeks and runs a streamlined offense efficiently, looking sharp while the D and running game lead the way to a 5-2 stretch that leaves us at 6-4 after Jets 2: Electric Boogaloo.
 
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