Here we were thinking that Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers and his injured calf would be just fine when the divisional round rolls around in two weeks.
In reality, it appears the injury is a bit more severe than that. The Press-Gazette consulted a foot and ankle specialist, who suggested the injury would normally take six to eight weeks to heal.
It doesn’t appear that this guy has actually seen or treated Rodgers, but we’re going to assume he has some idea of what he’s talking about anyway.
Dr. Ken Jung, a foot and ankle surgeon at Kerlan-Jobe Orthopedic in Los Angeles, believes the injury to be a moderate to severe calf strain. Moderate would mean there’s a slight tear in the muscle and severe would mean it’s completely torn.
“There’s some amount of tearing, anywhere from low grade or high grade,” Jung said. “Obviously, it’s probably at least a pretty low grade if he’s able to keep playing on it, versus if it’s a really high grade he probably wouldn’t be able to play on it. So there are basically small tears, like micro tears. Those areas can definitely get re-aggravated if you’re trying to stress a muscle that already has a previous injury.”
The short of it here is that Rodgers is going to play until he can’t. Rest is what it’s going to take to heal his injury fully, but the two weeks until the Packers play next isn’t going to do it.
So as long as the Packers are alive this postseason, they’re going to be alive with a gimpy quarterback.