Chiefs Rashee Rice: Asking a Doctor

Laddie Morse

Everyone wants to know what the final verdict is on the injury to Rashee Rice. Will he be able to play again this season… or is he done for the year? Those and other questions are dependent upon what is considered a “second opinion” and we have Dr. Matt Provencher to explain it all now (2:59):

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Matthew T Provencher, MD, MBA

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It’s still a “wait-n-see” affair with regards to Rashee Rice and his injury…

… as far as I can tell.

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Here’s a written transcript of what Dr. Provencher just said (above):

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“Oh, so where are we with Rashee Rice? Well, we just learned from the Chiefs

organization, as well as information from Adam Schefter, if the extent of Rice’s injury

is still unknown, despite getting advanced imaging. Well, the organization is getting a

second opinions on his injury, as well as [a] ‘return to play’ timeline. Well, what does

that mean? We were all very concerned about an ACL tear in his knee, but what this

points to is that he likely has a partial injury to the ACL, not a complete tear or what

we call a strain pattern in the ACL ligament that’s seen on the MRI.

This is actually one of the greatest challenges we deal with as a team physicians and

knee surgeons: what to do with a partial ACL tear? The way to really come up with

a decision on what to do from Rashee’s injury, comes down to testing, which includes:

hands-on his knee to asses stability of the ligament, including both translation as well as

rotation. But, this may be difficult to assess, given the likely swelling and guarding

that ensues in the knee right after this injury, which was extensive as we saw from the

video and from Rice also getting carted off the field.

The MRI will also be fully scrutinized and put together with the examination, which will

probably show us a partial ACL tear with some of the fibers intact. Typically some of

he fibers of one of he two main bundles, which make up the ACL, may be torn. However,

Rashee could also have other injuries, including a tear of the LCL or the lateral collateral

ligament, a capsular strain of the knee, [even] a bad bone bruise in the tibia and femur,

but these are usually more straight forward than the difficult decision for us as

orthopaedic surgeons in terms of how to handle a partial ACL sprain. So, this

is why there is likely a prolonged timeline and need for additional opinions.

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A partial ACL is not straightforward.

(emphasized by Dr. Provencher)

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It will also be very important to get Rice’s feedback into his overall treatment strategy.

It is still too early to tell and we will await confirmation from the team, but this conundrum

is now much clearer.

The decision will be if Rice truly needs surgery… or… if  he can return to play

after this potential partial ACL tear, or, other partial ligament or capsular injury,

in just a few weeks. Well, Rashee, we wish you the best of luck in your recovery.”

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What do you think?

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Laddie Morse — ArrowheadOne

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