Michael Thomas injury creates mysterious questions about diagnosis

Michael Thomas is likely done for the season, and the Saints’ medical staff looks a little suspicious in the process.

On Thursday, New Orleans Saints fans got the news they could feel coming, but still didn’t want to hear. Michael Thomas is out for the duration of yet another season due to injury.

As if that news wasn’t bad enough, the circumstances around the injury create some questions about how Thomas’s injury came to be and why it took so long to get to this point.

John Hendrix reported that head coach Dennis Allen said the injury was due to, “complications with doctors,” which is a very vague and slightly concerning way to phrase it.

In subsequent Tweets, Hendrix said that MRIs revealed the toe didn’t heal the way doctors were hoping.

It was widely speculated (but never confirmed) that Thomas suffered from turf toe in Week 3. In fact, it was reported that he was likely to return in Week 6, but Thomas never did.

Though the turf toe is purely speculation, why was Thomas listed as, “likely,” for Week 6, yet out for the season by Week 9? It’s a complete 180 from where we heard Thomas was at.

Are Saints team doctors to blame for Michael Thomas injury?

The Saints have had issues with their medical staff before. They fired orthopedists after misdiagnoses in 2017. Could a similar situation be in play here?

We have no idea, and anything here on the injury is pure speculation. It’s entirely possible that the injury was correctly diagnosed all along as a dislocated toe and the team simply didn’t see the progress in recovery they thought they would.

We don’t know, and it’s unlikely we’ll ever get a crystal clear answer. But it sure doesn’t track with such incomplete insight into what happened.

For now, it adds to the mystique that is Michael Thomas, who has been healthy enough to play in just 10 games over this season and the preceding two.