New England Patriots TE Rob Gronkowski to have MCL and ACL surgery on Thursday

Dec 8, 2013; Foxborough, MA, USA; New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski (87), accompanied by Dr. Thomas Gill, is carted off the field after being injured during the third quarter of New England /

Remember last postseason when the New England Patriots were trying to rush tight end Rob Gronkowski back from surgery so he could play in the team’s AFC Divisional round game against the Houston Texans? That resulted in Gronkowski needing further surgery which caused him to miss a large chunk of this 2013 season.

History is sort of repeating itself as while the Patriots aren’t going to rush Gronk back for this weeks AFC Divisional round game, they are going to have to spend an offseason wondering about his health and recovery. According to NFL Network insider Ian Rapoport, the Patriots tight end will have MCL and ACL surgery on Thursday from Dr. James Andrews.

#Patriots TE Rob Gronkowski will have surgery to repair his torn ACL and MCL this Thursday by Dr. James Andrews, per source.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) January 7, 2014

We all knew that Gronkowski would need surgery, it’s just a little surprising that it took them this long to get him on the operating table. This implies that the team hoped he could return this week to help out against the Indianapolis Colts, but realistically sights are being set on 2014.

This will mark the second straight offseason where Gronkowski needs surgery to repair his broken body and considering it took less than half a season to break him this time, the Patriots are best off letting him heal properly this time without rushing him.

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