Doctor breaks down recovery timeline, hurdles, long-term outlook

DETROIT – Dr. Frank McGeorge joined the Detroit Sports+ crew to talk about the injury timeline, recovery hurdles, and long-term implications for Detroit Lions star Aidan Hutchinson.

Hutchinson injured his left leg while sacking Dak Prescott during Sunday’s win over the Cowboys. He was immediately fitted with an air cast and carted off the field.

“Aidan Hutchinson underwent successful surgery to repair a fractured tibia and fibula at Baylor White Medical Center in Irving, Texas, last night,” the Lions said Monday in a statement. “Hutchinson will return to Detroit this week and is expected to make a full recovery. There is no timeline for his return to play at this time.”

Injury details

Dr. McGeorge explained how Hutchinson took a blow to the side of his left leg. It was a whipping injury, which caused the lower part of his leg to go in the other direction.

“You can expect the fibula took the hit first, so that’s why he fractured his fibula,” McGeorge said. “If the tibia was going to break, the fibula would have to break, as well, just based on the mechanics of that injury.”

The tibia is the primary weight-bearing bone, and that’s what needs to be repaired. The fibula doesn’t bear a lot of weight, but having an extra broken bone never helps, he said.

“More likely, they did an intramedullary nail, which is essentially a nail that runs down the entire shaft of the tibia and helps stabilize it, helps maintain its ability to bear weight, maintain its angulation,” McGeorge said.

He explained that the bone needs to be lined up properly from many different directions, which inserting a nail can accomplish.

Recovery timeline

Dr. McGeorge gave some initial thoughts on the possible recovery timeline for this injury.

“When I think about a tibia, tib/fib fracture, I think to myself, ‘Well, you know, so you’re probably talking 6-12 weeks of healing time,‘” McGeorge said. “Well, healing time doesn’t mean back-to-play time.

“That means that you would be able to get up and maybe go to your refrigerator. You’ll be able to maybe go start some early rehab, but you’re not going to be playing high-level athletics at all with that kind of injury, early on.”

So what are the chances that Hutchinson could come back this season?

“There’s a ton of online speculation as far as whether he might make it back in time for playoffs or Super Bowl, or something like that,” McGeorge said. “Honestly, I would say, based on the timing, it’s pretty unlikely that he’s going to see this season at all.”

Long-term implications

It’s difficult to say right now what the long-term implications might be for Hutchinson’s career, because it’s not known what else might have been injured in the leg.

“It’s hard to really make guesstimates,” McGeorge said. “I will say, this is definitely going to affect him, because there’s a psychological component to it, as well. There’s a rehab component. I mean, it’s going to hurt. So he’s going to be a little less likely, I think, to do more aggressive things, initially.

“Now, big picture, he’s a great guy. I know his dad. He comes from, I would say, good stock. I would expect him to be able to overcome all of this. I would expect that he’s going to be able to train through this and rehab through this. But really big picture, not knowing the extent of the other injuries, it’s hard to know what this means for his career beyond just this season.”

What about next season?

When asked about whether Hutchinson would likely be limited by training camp before next season, Dr. McGeorge had a fairly positive outlook.

“Once he heals up, actually, I would expect he’d be able to make it back to training camp,” McGeorge said. “I think that’s far enough out that he should be able to recover pretty much completely by that point in time — again, assuming that there’s no other surprises that we don’t know about.“

You can watch the full segment with Dr. McGeorge below, or click here to view Monday’s entire Detroit Sports+ episode.