Everybody with a moderate interest in sports probably remembers the gruesome injury Carson Wentz suffered on that fateful day in December 2017.
Carson Wentz, whos been in the MVP conversation, exited Sundays game after suffering a 3rd qtr injury to his left knee that the Eagles fear is a torn ACL #FlyEaglesFly #PHIvsLAR pic.twitter.com/salVpcnEel
— Next Man Up (@spottingboard) December 11, 2017
He tore his ACL and was out for the season. We now know how it ended for the team as a whole — they went on to win their first Super Bowl with the help of backup quarterback Nick Foles — but lots of Philly fans have been left wondering if they’ll ever witness the second coming of their Ginger Jesus.
Well, University of Pennsylvania doctor John Kelly sat in for a radio interview this week to deliver those fans some very grim news. It was a press conference heard around the world — a gut-wrenching cry of despair. The Liberty Bell actually might’ve shed a silent tear as Dr. Kelly leaned into the mic and revealed that Carson’s injury was indeed “worrisome.”
“This is an ACL plus 2,” he told the 94WIP Morning Show. “This is an RG3 equivalent, folks. This is worrisome. Now, his good news, he had a very good surgeon — Dr. James Bradley. He’s going to have good therapy virtue of NovaCare. He’s a man of faith, which is important to me too. This guy is an excellent patient. But I think his timeline is very, very optimistic.”
How optimistic is Wentz’s timeline? Just last week, Wentz told the same radio show that he hoped to be back by Week 1 of the 2018 season, at the latest, which would be in less than seven months.
“What I saw in the video, he had at least three ligaments on the outside of the knee damaged,” Dr. Kelly continued. “That requires reconstruction, that’s a long rehab. And if it were my patient, I’d be thinking nine, 10, or even 11 months.”
Dr. Kelly also mentioned Wentz will likely be “brace dependent” for the rest of his time in the NFL. That’s not exactly a career-ender, but it’s not exactly the image of health, either.
But Carson Wentz doesn’t seem to be putting all his eggs in one NFL basket. He got engaged to his longtime girlfriend this month and subbed in for Mike Pence at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C. Plus, Philly still has Super Bowl LII MVP Nick Foles. So even though Philly fans might want to start eyeing (or smashing, with a baseball bat) the panic button, they might take solace in Philly’s current patron, St. Nick Foles.
Unless he gets traded. That’s always a possibility too. Like I said, the panic button is always there to smash.
