The Arizona Cardinals delivered a dose of positive news on Aug. 18, when head coach Mike LaFleur confirmed that running back Jeremiyah Love will not need surgery to address his high-ankle sprain.
On social media, this drew a counterintuitive rush of worry. Some took LaFleur’s answer to mean that surgery had been under consideration for Love, elevating their concern.
To be clear, there has been no indication that was the case. LaFleur was simply responding to a reporter’s question, double-checking that Love would not need surgery.
And for the Cardinals, that’s a positive outcome. When players undergo surgery for a high-ankle sprain, it means the ankle joints are unstable, leading to a multiple-month recovery timeline.
When surgery is not required, the timeline for a running back to return to action is typically between two and six weeks, according to Kenneth Jung, a Los Angeles-based foot and ankle surgeon who works as a consultant for the Los Angeles Rams.
“Things we'll look at is just how swollen someone gets, how that affects their range of motion, how that affects their strength,” Jung said.
The complication, Jung added, is that players can feel 100% even when their strength and explosiveness have not fully recovered.
“They're not moving as well as they're used to or they're not able to react like they normally can, then you potentially can put them in harm's way,” Jung said. “And they may feel like they're 100% but they may not be able to actually perform at 100% and then that's when they're at risk.”
For Love, a two- to six-week timeline casts his availability for Week 1 in doubt. The Cardinals kick off their season on Sept. 13 against the Los Angeles Chargers — one month to the day after Love suffered his injury.
For now, the Cardinals have already announced that Love will not practice this week, nor will he play in their preseason game against the Dallas Cowboys on Saturday, Aug. 22. The team will reassess Love’s status after that point.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Cardinals deliver latest update on Jeremiyah Love injury