After suffering what appears to be the second major knee injury in as many years, Washington Redskins running back Derrius Guice knows the meaning of adversity; he’s living through it.
Another running back on the team can also feel his pain. Adrian Peterson is no stranger to knee injuries, as he is partly known for returning from an ACL tear in under a year, and rushing for over 2,000 yards the next season.
When AP heard about Guice’s meniscus tear and potential surgery, it hit him hard.
“It hurt my heart. I had to hold back tears,” said Peterson, via NBC Sports. “To see it in his face, and just how — the disgust in his face, I could tell that he was down. I remember the first thing I said to him was, ‘Hey, keep your head up. Keep your head up.’
Guice is currently in Florida, getting a second opinion from Dr. James Andrews, but the feeling is that he is likely to get surgery and miss up to eight weeks recovering. In the case that he is held out of play for two months, Peterson will be leaned on heavily in the Washington run game, much like he was when Guice was recovering from an ACL tear in his rookie season last year.
“Back-to-back years, dealing with an injury, we don’t know how severe it is, you just got to make the best out of the situation,” said Peterson. “Thinking ‘why?’ or having that negative energy is not going to help you come back.”
Peterson has acted as a great mentor on the field for Guice in the past, and now he again gets to play the role of mentor as the second-year back looks to recover from yet another serious injury.
