New England Patriots superstar Rob Gronkowski will undergo surgery today to address a herniated disc in his spine, and reports suggest that it may end his 2016 season.
The team and Gronkowski’s family issued a statement ahead of today’s scheduled surgery, stating “We do not expect that he will be able to play for the remainder of the 2016 season, but will await the results of tomorrow’s surgery before making a final determination.”
Gronk has been banged up quite a bit this year. He injured his hamstring during training camp and was sidelined for the first two games of the season before making his season debut on September 22. He’d remain healthy for a few games before suffering a pulmonary contusion after a big hit by Earl Thomas on November 13 against the Seahawks. He returned to the field on November 27, but he injured his spine the same day. The joint statement detailed that the spine injury resulted in significant back and leg pain, and that a medical evaluation revealed that he was dealing with a herniated disc.
History of Disc Herniation
Although Gronkowski is young, he has quite the history of herniated discs. Today’s surgery will mark the third time he’ll go under the knife for a spinal operation. When he was in college in 2009, he suffered a herniated disc and the subsequent surgery kept him on the sidelines for the entire season. In 2013, Gronkowski underwent a second spine surgery to address a herniated disc and didn’t return to the field until Week 7, roughly four months after surgery.
An initial report suggested that Gronkowski was expected to miss eight weeks with the injury, meaning he could return in time for the Super Bowl or potentially the AFC Championship – a game that the Patriots have played in in each of the last five years. However, that report appears to have been scratched in favor of the timeline suggested in the joint statement, which states that Gronk is probably done for the year.
There are a number of reasons why the scenario laid out in the joint statement is more likely than the eight week timeline. For starters, as we mentioned above, this is the third time Gronkowski has undergone an operation to address a herniated disc, meaning his spine is weaker than a normal spine. Secondly, while he does have youth and his physical fitness on his side, it seems unlikely that his back will heal quicker after the third operation (eight weeks) than it did after the first (full season) and second (four months) operation. Lastly, we need only look at another NFL superstar to understand the repercussions of returning to the field too soon after herniated disc surgery. Earlier this year JJ Watt, the league’s reigning defensive player of the year, underwent surgery during training camp to address a herniated disc in his back. Watt waited eight weeks before making his season debut, but three weeks later he re-injured his spine and was placed on season-ending injured reserve. He rushed back too soon, and it’s unclear how the second injury could jeopardize his career.
When you consider his extensive injury history, and not just with his spine, it’s clear that the Patriots would be doing the best thing for Gronk’s long-term health by shutting him down for the season and really letting him focus on gaining strength in his spine before he gets back on the football field. He’s no use to the team on the sidelines, but rushing him back on the field will only make things worse. Let him go through months of spinal rehabilitation this offseason, and have him come back with a clean bill of health, because if the spine doesn’t fully recover, one more hit could be career-threatening.