Steelers running back Le’Veon Bell undergoes core muscle surgery
After some delay, Pittsburgh Steelers running back Le’Veon Bell has had surgery to fix a groin issue.
Since missing most of the Pittsburgh Steelers’ AFC Championship Game loss to the New England Patriots, running back Le’Veon Bell has talked about a groin injury that was never disclosed on an official injury report. Head coach Mike Tomlin also acknowledged the injury during his year-end press conference, suggesting Bell played through the issue down the stretch last season.
Bell got a second, and reportedly a third opinion on if he would need offseason groin surgery, with NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport noting in late February that if surgery was necessary for Bell it would have been scheduled already.
Well, it appears Bell has pulled a fast one on everyone. On Monday, Rapoport reported the Steelers’ star running back underwent surgery to repair a core muscle injury.
#Steelers RB Le’Veon Bell finally had surgery today to fix a core muscle injury, source said. The normal timeline is 6 weeks or so.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) March 13, 2017
The Steelers placed the exclusive franchise tag on Bell before the March 1 deadline, which is worth over $12 million this year, as talks are ongoing regarding a long-term deal. His status for the start of the season is not in doubt, but a six-week recovery timetable would appear to keep Bell out of Pittsburgh’s first bit of offseason work this spring. While there’s nothing wrong with that, with nothing to gain for veteran players beyond injury risk in meaningless pad-less practices, it also likely explains a fairly lengthy delay in Bell’s decision to have surgery.
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As long he stays healthy, and away from off-field issues, Bell is in line to be one of the NFL’s best running backs for at least another handful of years. So fixing this ongoing groin issue surgically was the best option, even if putting if off was part of a plan to miss OTAs.