WASHINGTON -- Potentially great news on Redskins Quarterback Alex Smith and that gruesome injury.
An orthopedic surgeon and sports medicine expert at Sibley Hospital said it looks very different to him than the break that ended the legendary Joe Theismann's career exactly 33 years earlier.
Many of us recoiled from the video, but Sibley Hospital orthopedic surgeon and sports medicine specialist J.R. Rudzki has gone through it frame by frame and came away hopeful.
"This is where the tibia, this bone here, is bent," pointing at a still frame in the video. "It's bent with the fibula, in what appears to be the mid-portion, but it would be hard to say definitely without x-rays."
Mid-point is the key word here. Joe Theismann's career ending injury on a Monday night in 1985 was much higher.
"Joe Theismann's injury involved the tibia and went up toward the knee," said Rudzki. "That can be much worse."
Rudzki said if Alex Smith's break is at the mid-point, his surgeon could treat it by running a metal rod down through the bone, much as Rudzki just did with a young soccer player who came in with a similar injury.
"The fracture of the tibia is stabilized with an intramedullary rod that goes down the canal and enables the fracture to have good stability so it can progress on to healing. This is what that look like when it heals," he said looking at an x-ray.
If he's right, Rudzki said Alex Smith should make a full recovery and be back on the field within months.
Rudzki said the procedure really has not changed that much in 33 years. But how they handle rehab and soft tissues has improved a lot.
Redskins Coach Jay Gruden said Alex Smith's break does not appear to have damaged any ligaments, and he hopes to have him back in six to eight months.
