Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - New England Patriots QB Mac Jones Injury: Expert Medical Analysis from Dr. Jessica Flynn

Episode Date: September 27, 2022

New England Patriots quarterback Mac Jones has apparently suffered a severe high ankle sprain, which is expected to keep him out of action for multiple weeks. Joining host Mike D’Abate is Dr. Jessica Flynn, Sports Medicine Physician at Lahey Hospital and Medical Center to discuss the nature of Jones’ injury, a potential timetable for recovery and an innovative treatment measure which may help him in his rehabilitation.Find and follow Locked On Patriots on your favorite podcast platforms:Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/locked-on-patriots-daily-podcast-on-the-new-england/id1140512627 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1c5ZxFmwg3WbfxAU3tR5Ve?si=k196wH-yRqifUcQQz8SjIQStitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/show/locked-on-patriots And follow host Mike D’Abate on Twitter, where he’ll be sharing the latest news about the New England Patriots and talking with fans.On Twitter: @mdabateNFLSupport Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!LinkedInLinkedIn Jobs helps you find the candidates you want to talk to, faster. Post your job for free at LinkedIn.com/LOCKEDONNFLBuilt BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKEDON15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.BetOnlineBetOnline.net has you covered this season with more props, odds and lines than ever before. BetOnline – Where The Game Starts!BriteCoThe guys at BriteCo Jewelry Insurance made buying insurance for your engagement ring, your watch, or whatever so easy you can get covered in 2 minutes on your cell phone. You won't find a better deal on coverage that's so affordable. Go to https://brite.co/lockedon/PrizePicksFirst time users can receive a 100% instant deposit match up to $100 with promo code LOCKEDON. That’s PrizePicks.com – promo code; LOCKEDONBetterHelpIt’s not a crisis line, it’s not self-help, it’s professional therapy done securely online, available to people worldwide. And they have a special offer for my listeners: get 10% off your first month at Betterhelp.com/LockedOn Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You are Locked On Patriots, your daily New England Patriots podcast. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Hello to all of you, Foxborough faithful, and thank you once again for making Locked On Patriots a daily part of your New England Patriots coverage, also your first listen every day. Remember, Locked On Patriots, free and available on all platforms, including YouTube, so please smash that subscribe button

and download, subscribe to, and follow Locked On Patriots wherever you get your audio podcasts. I'm your host, Mike DeBate. I cover your New England Patriots for Patriots Country of Sports Illustrated. Reach out to me on Twitter at MDABATENFL. And while you're out there showing some love to that Twitterverse, please be sure to follow the Locked On Patriots account as well at LO underscore Patriots. And, of course, today's episode of Locked on Patriots presented by PrizePix. PrizePix is a daily fantasy made easy.

You can pick two to five players, and if they score more or less than their PrizePix projection, you can win up to 10 times your money on your entry. First time users can receive a 100% instant deposit match up to $100 with promo code LOCKEDON. That's prizepix.com promo code locked on. Patriots fans, the news of the day is the health of quarterback Mac Jones. Obviously hearing last night that a severe ankle sprain is indeed the diagnosis. And we're going to dive right into that today. And we are honored and humbled here today on Locked On Patriots to be joined by the foremost expert in the area on all things related to sports medicine.

She is a sports medicine physician at Leahy Hospital and Medical Center in Burlington, Massachusetts. In addition, she provides sports injury analysis for Boston Sports Journal, sports injury commentary for NBC Sports Boston. She's an analyst for the 33rd team and her very own website now, docflynn.com. It is my honor to welcome back Dr. Jessica Flynn to the Lockdown Patriots podcast. Dr. Flynn, thank you so much for joining me today. Thanks for having me, Mike. Although, you know, I hate when there are injuries to talk about. Yeah, absolutely. It's always under cloudy circumstances that we seem to be welcoming you into the show, but we are always, always happy to have you. And your opinion is definitely needed very, very prevalently here in New England right now.

Just the term not ideal is massively overused in sports media. I don't like using it personally, but it really is appropriate here today. And as we know, Mac Jones, MRI, apparently confirming what's called a severe high ankle sprain, suffered on the final play of the patch, 37 to 26 loss to the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday. There was no question about it. We all saw that something was wrong on the field. Mac hobbling over to the sideline, really in pain. And the pictures of him being taken off the field, showing him grimacing, it really painted a very negative picture. When you hear the diagnosis, it certainly fits in with that. It's a painful injury. And of course, we wish Mack the best in his recovery. And I know

everyone's wondering when we can expect Mack back on the field, but I was hoping that you could first take us through the injury itself, how it happened, and what a sprain exactly is. Because I learned a thing or two this week about sprains that I was not aware of previously. Well, this is my favorite part of what I do. I love educating people about injuries. And, you know, that's what I do with patients in the office every day. So I'm more than happy to sort of talk through this today. You know, the thing that happened to Mac was a little bit freak. He sort of got his foot stuck on the turf as Calais Campbell came down on his leg. And what you could tell from that injury was that, you know, his foot was

twisted one way, his leg was twisted the other. And that type of injury mechanism, unfortunately, results in a high ankle injury. So a lot of people ask, well, what is a high ankle injury? Why is it so different than a low, like what's a low ankle injury? Well, the high ankle injury means that there's injury to the ligaments, the little rubber bands that hold the lower leg bones, the shin, and then the fibula bone together. And that's really important for stability of the joint, because when you're standing up on your foot, the foot and ankle bones are kind of driving to separate those two higher bones apart. And so you need those ligaments to hold them together so that that ankle joint stays stable. And that's why this injury is so painful to put weight on and probably why Mac couldn't

put weight on it right away. There are different degrees of this injury. So anytime you have a sprain, it can start with a very mild injury where the ligament is stretched and that can progress to full tearing of the ligament. So almost always when you have a sprain, there is some degree of tearing, whether it's something you can see macroscopically, just looking at the ligament, or if it's something you'd need a microscope to see little fibers torn. That's what we think about when we talk about grading these injuries.

And there are a few ligaments in the high ankle. So in this case, it really depends how many ligaments, if they're torn, how many of them are torn and is that ankle joint stable? Yeah, absolutely. And that's such a good piece of information for our listeners, for any sports fan to have whenever an athlete goes down with high ankle sprains. And Mac Jones is certainly not the first. He will certainly not be the last to have to go through something like this. And depending on the degree of severity, it can definitely affect how you rehab. It can affect a lot of things,

your ability to play and your ability to move around as you did on the field prior to the injury. And we're going to get into what this might mean for Mac's injury future in just a moment here on Locked On Patriots. But in the next segment, Dr. Jessica Flynn will talk about a procedure that might end up helping Mac or potentially might end up helping Mac recover a little bit quicker.

Or will it? Well, Jess is the foremost expert in the area, and I'm going to leave it to her to explain that because trust me, folks, you don't want to hear it from me me more with Dr. Jessica Flynn of Boston Sports Journal in just a moment but first folks please remember that today's episode is brought to you by our friends over at PrizePix PrizePix is daily fantasy made easy let me tell you how it works you pick two to five players and they score more or less than their PrizeP projection, you can win up to 10 times your money on any entry. You're not competing with any other people. It's just you versus the projections available.

And they offer projections on any sport that you watch, including NFL, NBA, Major League Baseball, NHL, PGA, college football, men's and women's college basketball, and more. Download the prize picks app or go to prizepicks.com to sign in and play daily fantasy sports first time users can receive a 100 instant deposit match up to 100 with promo code locked on and if you deposit 100 prize picks will give you 100 if you deposit 50 prize picks will give you 50 don't hesitate and forget to enter promo code locked on that sign up for an instant deposit match up to 100 prizepicks.com patriots fans i am definitely honored and humbled to be joined by dr jessica flynn of lahey health dr flynn we talked a little bit in the previous segment about how this injury happened

to Mac, what happened, and exactly what entails a diagnosis of a severe high ankle sprain or a sprain in general, in that essentially every sprain does involve some sort of a tearing, whether it's fibers, whether it's the muscle itself, the different degrees and the different levels of severity can affect how this will be rehabbed. And ultimately, I think a lot of us here in Patriots Nation are wondering, with an injury like a severe high ankle sprain, the numerous factors that come into play when it comes to recovery. We hear the estimates of recovery time for Mac right now, anywhere from four to eight

weeks. We've even seen it up over that in some projections. But yesterday, you brought to our attention on Twitter a method that was used on two of Mac's ex-Alabama teammates, Tua Tagovailoa and Jalen Hurts, back in 2018 when they suffered high ankle sprains within six months of one another. Folks, this procedure is called tightrope, and this could end up helping Mac to recover a bit quicker than some may expect. But before I incorrectly start to tell our listeners what tightrope entails, Jess, I'm hoping you can save us here. Please share with us your insight on tightrope and whether or not this is applicable in this situation. Yeah, there's been a lot of

talk about tightrope. You know, I remembered reading that article from Sports Illustrated years ago, and I said, I think Mac actually commented on this. And sure enough, he had, I offered that as background, really, just to see sort of what these athletes, what their experiences with injuries before they have them and what their knowledge of treatment options are. Because that's really important when they're going in to working with a surgeon and a medical team and helping make the decision sort of about what treatment they would choose going forward if there in fact is a choice. And oftentimes in an injury like this, there is a choice. So the tightrope procedure is not actually that new. It's been around for many

years. It became more popular when to have that injury really was brought sort of more into the light and into the media eye. But it's a procedure where instead of using a screw to basically hold those two lower leg bones together, um, there's this almost like wire, um, with two buttons that will hold it together. It's nice because it doesn't require a second surgery to remove the hardware that's stabilizing that joint. Um, that tight rope can kind of stay in there forever. And then some athletes feel like

it's protective afterwards that you can't quite sprain the ankle the same way after. As in many things in medicine, you know, there's a lot of industry behind these decisions, right? There's a lot of industry saying, look, buy my product. It's the biggest miracle, you know, since sliced bread. And so you have to keep that in mind. And that's something that we as doctors have to keep at the forefront of our patients' minds all the time. There are clear indications for surgery for high ankle injuries. And the most significant one is that all of those high ankle ligaments, or many of them have to be torn and the ankle joint has to be unstable. And that's something that the doctors can tell

by specific x-rays, like stress x-rays, physical exam, the MRI imaging to see if the ligaments are intact. And if in fact there is a severe enough injury that requires the surgery, that would be an indication to use maybe the tight rope to go forward. And that is something that athletes can, they can return, you know, I think two are returned at three weeks, but I don't know if all of his ligaments were torn. I don't know if he, you know, had the surgery for the same indications that Mac Jones might, if Mac Jones's ligaments are all torn. And so these are all things that are going into the discussion. And honestly, the team probably doesn't know yet, you know, how severe the injury is and how long it's going to take him to recover.

So I think it's kind of nuts that we were asking 26 hours after the injury, when's he going to be back? When's he going to be back? Because I think he and his medical team are trying to figure that out right now. So, you know, I just talked a lot, but in summary, it may be that the tightrope is appropriate for him, but you don't want to have an unnecessary surgery just to try to rush things. And so there really is a big decision out there. And it's something I'm sure he worked through yesterday and hopefully he and his medical team feel comfortable with their choice. Yeah, we asked Mac yesterday when

we spoke to him at 4.15 p.m. or a little after that, I should say, probably a little closer to 5 p.m. Eastern. And I was actually very surprised that Mac was that cordial to the media. Obviously, he was very well rehearsed and very well versed in terms of what to say. He used the term day by day quite often. But the one thing that he did say when asked specifically about tightrope is that everyone was different he's going to do his treatment he's going to keep his options on the table and he's going to do what he feels is best for him in his recovery so i think in that regard it at least shows that it's on the table for mac something that i think he's considering and it does kind of help to lend some credence to

a lot of the reports that we're seeing out there about Mack weighing all of his options right now and trying to decide what's best for him, what's going to be best for him long-term, and also what's going to get him back on the field as quickly as possible. Jess, in this situation, is there any conflict between those two, between the decision that Mack makes to either extend his career and prevent any long-term difficulty or the decision that he makes to get himself back on the field? I guess the best way for me to put it is, is there any bad decision that Mack can make right now that could be detrimental for either him trying to recover quickly or having long-term health issues? No, I mean, I think that there is probably no wrong choice unless, again, like I have video to go by and reports that we're hearing,

you know, from the media, leaked reports, right? So I'm hearing it's a high ankle sprain. I'm hearing that it's a severe high ankle sprain. The video agreed with it. There could be other injuries that I'm not aware of. It could be not as severe as we think it is. Who knows, right? But I think the best treatment for these athletes, and I really do believe in the Patriots medical staff, is going to be they look at the athlete and what's best for him, not what's best for the team.

I mean, that's how you treat people. And that's how, you know, we hope that every NFL, you know, medical team is treating their athletes. Absolutely. Very well said. And thank you for the clarification, because again, it's on the mind of a lot of Patriots fans. It's definitely on the mind of the media. And it's really, I think, on the mind of Mac and the parties involved as well. So knowing that these decisions do have repercussions, everyone is well aware of that. And it's helpful to have a little more insight on what those repercussions could be either way. Jess, it's the million-dollar question that everyone has on their mind. And I'm not going to put you on the hot seat and ask you when Mac's going to be back,

because I think there are a lot of factors involved that you've articulated this very well. I'm going to sound like Kevin Bacon from A Few Good Men here in just a moment. And I assure you, folks, I do not mean that condescendingly like Captain Ross did in that movie. But just in your expert professional opinion, when you look at injuries of this type and when the quarterback or whatever player suffers a severe high ankle sprain or injuries like this do get back on the field what realistically can we expect to see from Mac in the immediate aftermath of him returning to the field how long can these injuries last we know about the supposed ACL hangover where it takes you a full year to really get back to where you need

to be I don't say supposed derisively I mean, there are definitely, you know, measures that need to be taken to get athletes back into shape, but what can we expect to see from Mac? Is this going to be the Mac of old? Is this going to be maybe a progression or does it really depend on the player? I think it depends on a lot of factors. The first one being obviously how severe the injury is and what option he chooses or has chosen for him. Sometimes there isn't much of a choice for treatment. Once he's back on the field, if this indeed was a high ankle sprain, you should, I mean, if you're looking at him versus Saquon Barkley, I mean, there's no comparison, right? If he was a super mobile quarterback who depended on his ankles and his feet, you know, to move and move the ball down the field, that would be a very different story than his situation, right?

And so, yeah, there's going to be some, if he's out for a long time, he's going to have to, you know, work his body up to game play. Right. His decision making, he should continue to be working on all that. So I'm less concerned about that. But physically, you may see a slow ramp up period in the beginning where, you know, he might be a little bit stiff at first and then kind of progress. But Mac is a tough guy. And I really can't imagine he isn't going to do the best to prepare

himself to be back on the field as soon as he's able to be. Excellent. And I think in a lot of ways, very fitting that we wrap this up here today on Locked On Patriots with that type of insight, folks. I don't use the term best in the business lightly. I'm very humbled and very honored in my profession to be able to share the screen, share the microphone, and share thoughts with a lot of the best at what they do. That is especially true of Dr. Jessica Flynn, who joined me here this morning to hear circulating throughout Patriots media for the next 24, 48 hours and really up until the days and weeks until we see Mac back in a

Patriots uniform. And hopefully for the Patriots for Mac and for all parties involved, that will be as soon as possible. Just thank you so much for taking time out of your busy schedule to join me here today on locked on Patriots. Before I let you go, please let everyone know in Patriots Nation where they can find you, where they can read your in-depth expert analysis, and what you have coming on the horizon when it comes to the world of sports media and sports medicine. Well, you can always find me on Twitter. I try to keep a lot of my

commentary there. So I'm at DocFlynnN NFL. I think you can see that on the screen. And then my website also docflynn.com just has a lot of the commentary I do for 3013 and Boston Sports Journal. I'm lucky to work in a great area of the country where there's some really professional and excellent sports media like Mike. So it's a good landing spot for a lot of the conversations I get to have. Well, thank you very much for that compliment. I do appreciate it. And folks, definitely whenever Jess puts pen to paper, voice to microphone, let me say it a lot, but I really do mean it when it comes to Jess, really the best in the business and expert analysis,

the way only she can provide it. Thank you so much for joining me again today, Jess. We look forward to having you back, hopefully when we have a little more news on Mac, maybe when he's ready to suit back up. I say this with every bit of reverence. I hope we don't have to have you back on to talk about any additional Patriots injuries. You know, the words, you know, severe Patriots injuries, because there are still some players out there that we're waiting to see, know whether it be taekwon thornton time montgomery there are

still players patriots players right now that we're expecting to see come off of ir and hopefully we'll start to see this roster fill up the way it was intended when the team was put together but in the meantime folks please definitely follow just flynn at Flynn at Doc Flynn NFL for all of the latest injury information when it comes to your New England Patriots and really all things Boston sports. And once again, don't forget to continue to smash that subscribe button on YouTube and download, subscribe to and follow Locked On Patriots wherever you get your podcasts. Thank you for making Locked On Patriots your first listen today. Now that you've made us your first listen, make your second listen. Our good friends over at Peacock and Williamson, their NFL show is available Monday through Friday, providing all of the latest breakdowns from the world of the NFL.

My colleague, Brian Peacock and former NFL scout Matt Williamson are the best of the biz at what they do. So download, subscribe to and follow wherever you get your podcasts. On behalf of Dr. Jessica Flynn, I'm Mike DeBate. Continue to stay safe, stay well, be the change you wish to see in the world. Have a great day, everyone, and thank you for joining us today.