Robert Griffin III Has Surgery Wednesday Morning, Recovery Time Could Be 8-12 Months
By Josh Hill
Robert Griffin III went into surgery to repair his torn ACL and LCL early Wednesday morning, but that news is being washed over by a report that Griffin III’s initial prognosis was incorrect and that the rookie will need more time than first thought to fully recover from his injury.
Dr. James Andrews performed the surgery at 7am Eastern Time on Wednesday, which means RGIII’s recovery begins now. With the sudden success of Adrian Peterson this season, a guy who tore his ACL a little over a year ago on the same crappy FedEx Field grass, fans of the Redskins are hopeful that their star quarterback will be back in time for the start of the 2013 season.
According to Dr. James C. Dreese, a doctor for the University of Maryland athletic teams, fans should forget the 6-to-8 month prognosis on RGIII and come to terms with the more realistic timetable of 8-to-12 months.
To be fair, Dr. Dreese has no knowledge of RGIII’s injury outside of what we all know. He hasn’t seen an MRI or personally examined the injury, so he isn’t 100 percent accurate in his prognosis. But he is a doctor and he has dealt with LCL injuries before, so when he says RGIII could miss up to an entire calendar year recovering, it shouldn’t be taken lightly.
RGIII’s father says that his son’s ACL isn’t in fact completely torn, but it’s not intact enough for an athlete of his caliber.
“Robert’s ACL is intact, but not enough for his profession,” Griffin II said in a text message to Jim Corbett of USA Today. “You and I could be fine. But he is an athlete. So they will replace.”
[RELATED: RGIII Has Partial Tears of his ACL and LCL]
Optimism says that Griffin III will be back around October, and if we can all agree on one thing it’s that he won’t be back as soon as Peterson was. Peterson returned in seven months, which is miraculous and the season that followed is even more of an anomaly. Chicago Bulls star and former NBA MVP Derrick Rose suffered an ACL tear back in April and while he had surgery in May he has yet to return to action despite it being eight months since his surgery. Rose isn’t expected back until February at the earliest, March at the latest which means he’d be returning 10-to-11 months after suffering the injury.
RGIII very well could return sooner than that but a safe assumption would be that he comes back sometime after Peterson did and a little before Rose will.
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