KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Chiefs placed Laurent Duvernay-Tardif on injured reserve on Tuesday after an MRI showed more extensive ligament damage in his ankle beyond a fractured fibula and putting his return this season in doubt.
“It was a little bit worse than what we originally thought,” head coach Andy Reid during his Wednesday press conference. “Not to the point where potentially he could come back this year. Just have to see, see how he heals up.”
Duvernay-Tardif has a Maisonneuve injury, according to the club's head athletic trainer Rick Burkholder.
“Basically what happens there is his ankle get externally rotated, the force tears ligaments in his ankle, runs up the leg and the breaks his fibula.”
A Masisonneuve fracture essentially consists of two injuries, according to the Mayo Clinic. It typically includes a fracture of the fibula along with an ankle sprain that stretches or tears the ligaments. Standards X-rays typically do not reveal the extent of the ligament damage.
Durvernay-Tardif will undergo surgery Monday by Dr. Bob Anderson in Green Bay, Wisc. Anderson is co-chairman of the NFL's foot and ankle subcommitee and performed surgery on several Chiefs players in the past. He performed the Achilles tendon repairs on both Eric Berry and Derrick Johnson.
Postoperative recovery for a Maisonneuve injury typically requires six to 12 weeks without bearing weight on the ankle. That's followed by physically therapy. Burkholder declined to put a timetable on his recovery Wednesday.
“We'll know after the surgery how much time he'll miss,” Burkholder said.
But Reid sounded much pessimistic about his starting right guard's recovery than he did earlier in the week.
“I wish I could predict it but they're all a little different,” Reid said of the injury. “There's a chance he could. I think int the next few weeks we'll tell you here how that goes.”
