Long has been rehabbing from surgery to repair his right ankle, which was seriously injured in the Nov. 13 loss to the Buccaneers in Tampa, Fla. Long suffered ligament damage and basically tore everything but his Achilles tendon.
Originally, he was scheduled to undergo surgery on his left shoulder earlier this month, but Long will focus solely on returning from the ankle surgery. The three-time Pro Bowl selection played through the shoulder injury, which was suffered in the preseason, for 10 games before the gruesome ankle injury, when he was rolled up from behind by fullback Paul Lasike on a shovel pass near the goal line.
Howie Long, Kyle's father, told the Tribune that his son struggled with medication when he underwent ankle surgery in Charlotte, N.C. Long lost 40 pounds, but part of that was by design in order to make his ankle recovery easier.
You can read the entire article on the link. Wonder if he'll be ready to start the year if he's down 40lbs, that seems pretty drastic to try and get back over the summer, while also trying to rehab the ankle, which is part of the reason(other was a bad reaction) you lost the weight to begin with.
Forget the Whitehair to OT, he might well be playing RG, at least through the offseason and TC. This might open the door to see how Grasu has developed as a OC.
I don't doubt Long will want to play, but he won't be the Kyle Long we've seen play here before... he hasn't had the shoulder surgery yet too. And 40 pounds lost on a pro athlete isn't a small thing by any means. That is muscle mass lost. A lot of muscle mass.
I don't doubt Long will want to play, but he won't be the Kyle Long we've seen play here before... he hasn't had the shoulder surgery yet too. And 40 pounds lost on a pro athlete isn't a small thing by any means. That is muscle mass lost. A lot of muscle mass.
His Dr's(and there are Multiple) have said his shoulder shouldn't need surgery b/c the rehab is doing so well. Honestly what worries me is what you said, he likely lost a lot of muscle in that 40 lbs, he never looked like the stanard OG w/a good load of fat on him.
I don't doubt Long will want to play, but he won't be the Kyle Long we've seen play here before... he hasn't had the shoulder surgery yet too. And 40 pounds lost on a pro athlete isn't a small thing by any means. That is muscle mass lost. A lot of muscle mass.
His Dr's(and there are Multiple) have said his shoulder shouldn't need surgery b/c the rehab is doing so well. Honestly what worries me is what you said, he likely lost a lot of muscle in that 40 lbs, he never looked like the stanard OG w/a good load of fat on him.
Good to know about the shoulder. I didn't know that. That is good news then. Regarding the weight loss, I figure these athletes have very low body fat - even guys like Kyle Long. It's not like back in the day, when they were just strong fat guys. And the opposite is true too... it's not just a matter of "fattening up" and gaining 40 pounds of fat now. 40 pounds of (mostly) muscle is a big deal I would think. And while there are conditioning exercises he can do while the ankle surgery heals, it's not like working out with a healthy ankle in the gym. At least that would be my uneducated guess. Maybe one of the trainers here on the messageboard can help us understand this better.
It's starting to sound like our starting interior line next year will be Sitton, Grasu and Whitehair.
At least at the beginning of the season. I am assuming that it would be best for Long to spend time in recovery regaining the weight and strength slowly.
Probably had a lot of atrophy in the leg, which represented a good portion of his weight loss. I wouldn't worry about it too much to be honest. And he played with the shoulder this season...lot's of guys play with that injury.
It's starting to sound like our starting interior line next year will be Sitton, Grasu and Whitehair.
At least at the beginning of the season. I am assuming that it would be best for Long to spend time in recovery regaining the weight and strength slowly.
If I was Pace/Fox I would tell Long to get 100% and then he'll be right back to starting RG; until then that's the lineup I'd go w/in OTA's and TC and PS.
Probably had a lot of atrophy in the leg, which represented a good portion of his weight loss. I wouldn't worry about it too much to be honest. And he played with the shoulder this season...lot's of guys play with that injury.
That's like rodding his leg, except they use a trophy instead of a rod, right?