Week 2 NFL Injury Spotlight: Nick Chubb with a severe knee injury

During Week 2 Monday Night Football, the Cleveland Brown’s Nick Chubb sustained a lateral blow to his left knee. Chubb was carted off the field with this season ending injury. An official diagnosis of injury has not been made clear.

Now let’s talk about it! The primary moves of the knee are to flex (hamstrings) and extend (quadriceps), but also provide a little rotation. The major knee stabilizer muscles are the quads which are made up of 4 muscles and the hamstrings which are made up from 3 muscles.

The knee needs to be strong and stable in order to make lateral and cutting movements. This is where important knee ligaments come in. The ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) helps avoid too much forward movement of knee joint, the PCL (posterior cruciate ligament) helps avoid too much backwards movement of the knee joint, the MCL (medial collateral ligament) helps the avoid too much knee movement medially, and the LCL (lateral collateral ligament) helps avoid too much knee movement laterally.

Lastly you can’t talk about the knee without talking about the meniscus, which if you didn’t know we have 2 in each knee. They’re made up of cartilage and are a big shock absorber with weight bearing activities such as walking, running, and jumping. The menisci is what helps bend and extend our knee smoothly if it is healthy and not damaged.

Chubb sustained a VERY SEVERE lateral blow to his knee. Usually a lateral blow causes damage to the knee which is commonly know a the the unhappy triad. This means damage to the ACL, MCL, and medial meniscus due to blunt force trauma. Chubb’s injury is more severe because he was hit with such great force. This more than likely caused damage to his ACL, PCL, MCL, LCL, both menisci, and possible tibial plateau fracture. He could also have nerve and vascular damage to the leg as well.

So the question remains, will he be able to return to playing pro football again? The answer is unknown. All we know is if he wants to continue playing football, it will be a long road to recovery with extensive surgical procedures and extensive physical therapy.