Kansas City Chiefs head athletic trainer Rick Burkholder had a chance to update the media on some key injuries this morning including starting quarterback Patrick Mahomes.
Burkholder sought to shed light on Mahomes’ injury, what occurred on the field, the process after which included X-Ray and MRI imaging, and finally what’s gone on so far in his rehabilitation.
“Just to address Patrick Mahomes,” Burkholder began. “You guys saw the game and the video. Dr. Paul Schroeppel reduced the dislocated patella. We had X-Rays at the game, they came back negative. We did an MRI Friday here at the facility and that turned out as good as we could possibly imagine. He’s worked all weekend here. He’s done rehabilitation. He did extensive pool therapy here at the complex. He’s done some stuff in the athletic training room and is progressing nicely. As I’ve talked to you guys over the years here, every guy is different and every injury is different. You saw that with Tyreek (Hill) and how we managed that. We do this with all of our players, so we’ll manage Patrick (Mahomes) accordingly and he’s right in the middle of the process.”
The MRI results coming back “as good as we could possibly imagine” is obviously a striking statement. It tends to line up with what we’ve heard about the MRI results thus far.
What is perhaps even more interesting is that Mahomes is already well along his way with rehabilitation. The Thursday Night Football game is what has allowed for that. Burkholder seemed to stress at the end of his statement that every injury is unique and different. There was a sense of optimism in that comment from Burkholder that perhaps Mahomes could be ready sooner than later. It also covers the bases in the event that Mahomes follows a normal timeline for recovery. However, as we’ve learned with Mahomes, nothing about him and the game of football is normal.
