Was Chase Young playing injured prior to his ACL tear?
Kevin Sheehan and guest Dr. Jesse Morse, MD discussed Young’s injury on Sheehan’s podcast Wednesday.
Morse, a Board Certified Sports & Family Medicine physician in Miami, is a Cell Therapy Specialist at The Osteopathic Center. He follows sports, is known as “The Fantasy Doc” and has professionally helped many athletes.
Here are some excerpts from Dr. Morse regarding his opinion of the Chase Young injury. With the link provided above the interview begins at 42:50.
“Even a patellar tendon rupture in its isolation is a rough injury. Combining that with an ACL is a BIG deal. I don’t think I have ever heard of this combo together. I don’t know how he would even do it. It is a very strange combo.”
A major loss for Washington.
Chase Young heads to the locker room but waves off the cart after an apparent right leg injury.
He has been ruled out.
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— The Athletic NFL (@TheAthleticNFL) November 14, 2021
“The Patellar tendon is the tendon that attaches the knee cap to your shin. Essentially it pulls down on the shin anytime you want to walk or anything. It is a weird combination of tearing that and the ACL at the same time.”
Traditionally the ACL is going to be minimum of 9 months up to 12 months of rehab without any setbacks. The problem with an ACL tear by itself is you pretty much need to get started on rehab pretty quickly. But with the Patellar tendon you need 4 to 6 weeks of allowing it to heal before you can start pushing it. You can’t do both at the same time because that would obviously counteract what you are trying to do.”
“I wouldn’t be surprised if he didn’t come back until November. Given his stature, how important he is to the team, his position, the fact that you don’t want to bring him back and say, ‘Hey, we are only going to bring you back for ten plays a game.’ They want to bring him back and let his motor go. So, I think they will bring him back when he is 100 percent ready, really trust that knee, fortify that knee.”
“Is there a possibility he doesn’t play in 2022? Yes. It’s probably only a 30% chance of that now. Maybe a setback, maybe the team is not doing the best and they say, ‘You know what? It is probably not worth it to bring him back this year.’ A just in case type of thing. I could see that coming to fruition.”
When Sheehan expressed Young was not effective prior to the ACL tear, and his production was considerably less than his rookie 2020 season, he asked Dr Morse, “Was it possible he was playing injured?”
“Definitely. I will tell you; I see all different positions, linemen, quarterbacks, wide receivers, everything. I would say we probably know about 20 percent of their injuries from the media. Even then, whenever I ask them, ‘What is bothering you today?’ They could answer ten things. But it is only the thing that is bothering them the most (that they express). They all have crazy injuries. Most of the time they function through them, push through them.”
“Could it be something that was changing his mechanics that was causing him to not have the same level of explosiveness? Could he have had a partial injury to that Patellar tendon? Very much so. It is very common actually. If you throw an ultrasound on it, you can see it in a minute.”
“A lot of guys just push through it and hope it gets better because they are used to everything getting better. They are genetic freaks. They are used to being the best of the best. But unfortunately, ligaments and tendons don’t heal, and they learn the hard way.”
