David J. Chao, MD
@ProFootballDoc
http://www.nationalfootballpost.com/Monday-Morning-MD-7038.html
Former NFL head team physician with 17 yrs of sideline experience. Orthopedic Surgeon. Real time inside look at injuries/medical issues. MondayMorningMD
@NFpost
The biggest injury of the weekend belongs to Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin III. By real time video analysis, RG3 dislocated his ankle. By definition, structural integrity of his ankle joint is violated with either a displaced fracture or complete ligament tear.
At the moment, there is no definite answer to when RG3 will return.
Although a dislocation without fracture is rare, I doubt RG3 broke his ankle with the dislocation or we would have already heard about surgery, as it is often best to reduce and stabilize the ankle immediately. If he doesn’t have a loss of bone integrity, Griffin most certainly has ligamentous disruption. With his mechanism of injury, he likely has complete deltoid ligament tear/avulsion.
Assuming a dislocation without fracture, there is typically no surgery needed, but still a minimum of six to eight weeks for recovery. We all know a bad ankle sprain can take four weeks for full recovery. Think of this injury as a severe ankle sprain with complete disruption of ligaments. Barring articular cartilage damage, the injury should not be career threatening and Griffin should recover fully.
MMMD 2: RG3 as tough as they come
I would not use the words “injury prone” to describe Robert Griffin III. I would say that he is the ultimate tough guy and team player.
Major joint dislocations are extremely painful. I wouldn’t begrudge a player if he were to collapse immediately and drop the ball. I have seen this happen. Instead RG3 heroically finishes the play and not only retains possession, but gets his team a first down.
When a player suffers a significant or painful injury, his reaction cannot be anticipated. RG3 dislocated his ankle and continued to play football. He took an additional step, threw for a 19-yard completion, and then hoped on his one good leg out of bounds without ever putting weight back
on the injured left side again before falling.
I am not sure how many other players in the league would do the same thing for his team when suffering such a painful injury.