Washington Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin III recently
underwent surgery to repair tears to his ACL and LCL. We had the opportunity to
ask Chiropractic Sports Physician Dr. Ray Solano questions about the injury to
get his take on recovery, just how long RG3 will be sidelined and if the
Redskins were right to keep him in.
Please provide a
general overview of the injury and its overall impact.
Robert Griffin, III had successful surgery to reconstruct
his ACL and repair his LCL this past Wednesday. According to Dr. James Andrews,
his orthopedic surgeon, Griffin is expected to fully recover within six to
eight months. This prognosis is expected to have him back for the 2013 season.
What recovery process
for RG3 be like and how long do you expect him to be sidelined due to the
injury?
Realistically speaking, my expectations are for Griffin to
return closer to eight months. It’s still a short period of time, given the
severity of the injury. Griffin has two major things in his favor that will
speed up recovery; his phenomenal conditioning and his familiarity with the
rigorous rehab that is expected of him. Griffin tore his same ACL at Baylor
University in 2009.
Griffin’s rehab process will be rigorous but over the years
this type of rehab has been accelerated to have players back at a faster rate.
The first two to three months will be geared toward reducing the swelling on
his knee, while the latter months are designed to increase joint mobility and
strength. It's expected that Griffin will be rehabilitating his knee four to
six hours a day. Toward the end of his rehab, he will be expected to
participate in football specific movement patterns and drills which will
eventually clear him for a return to play. It's very likely, in my opinion,
that he will miss the first two games of the 2013 season.
Do you think the
Redskins we're wrong by keeping RG3 in the Seahawks’ game?
There are many speculations about whether or not he should
have been pulled from the game against the Seattle Seahawks, but regardless
Griffin appeared to have re-injured his knee in the first quarter. My -thoughts
are that the field conditions, together with a vulnerable knee and
fourth-ranked Seattle defense, is what created the perfect storm and caused the
injury. Either way, his surgery has a 90% success rate and I expect Griffin to
be back on the field and perform just as before his injury. He has many
athletic reserves, therefore upon his return Griffin will still be that
explosive and game changing quarterback that Redskins fans have come to
embrace. Even if he does miss a step, the average person will not be able to
tell.
Dr. Solano is a great follow on Twitter @DrRaySolano. He
provides constant updates on sports injuries and does a great job interacting
with his growing group of followers.
Follow @TheNFLInjuryRpt
It seems that most pundits have the "it's all over", dooms day for RG3. I say, stop all the prognosticating...let things run the course and see where he lands. As surely as his faith has gotten him to this point, I feel that his strong faith and belief will help him overcome this very serious injury. All the prognosticators are predicting the end of his career. They are call him run first QB, he is not a run first QB, the Redskins offensive philosophy is the "run first QB" in this equation. Griffin is not a run first QB, he is just runnig the offense that the coaches are telling him to run. If he was playing in a passing only offense, he would be a passing QB. So, stop all the "running QB" comparisons. it was unfortunate he got his knee hit by that Ravens DT, Nogata. I feel that Nogata deliberately went for Griffins knee, maybe not to hurt him, but to inflict pain. If Griffin learns to slide first, the injury never happens, but he dove headfirst and his leg was caught in the air, that is when Nogata hit his knee. He should have just taken all the time after that to ensure that his knee was fully healed instead of trying to come back and play basically on one leg. Knowing he was the franchise, the Redskin organization owed it to Griffin to sit him, even for the remainder of the season to ensure that he cmae back in 2013, ready to go!
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