There’s something that drives me bonkers in the NFL injury reporting world, and a perfect example of it is unfolding right now. Or not unfolding, I should say. Denver TE Julius Thomas, a hugely important player to both the team and to fantasy owners, exited the game with an ankle injury. We don’t yet have an exact diagnosis on what the ankle injury is, but that’s fairly common as it often takes further examinations and imaging tests to make a clear diagnosis. In fact, Thomas is reported to be undergoing an MRI on Monday which could shed light on the exact nature of the injury. It’s not this delay that bothers me. What bothers me is that nobody seems to know if Thomas injured his right or his left ankle. This should not be so difficult. By now, reporters have had a chance to talk to coaches and players. Analysts and experts have had a chance to review a little game film. Yet nobody can tell us which ankle Thomas injured.
Why does this matter, you ask? Because of Thomas’ injury history. In 2011, Thomas suffered a high ankle sprain in his right ankle. He missed five weeks with the injury. Five weeks is a little more severe than the average high ankle sprain, but isn’t completely out-of-line with the historical comparisons for this injury. What’s more alarming is that Thomas ended up having surgery on the same right ankle after the 2011 season was over. Renowned foot specialist Dr. Robert Anderson operated on Thomas in order to repair ligament damage in Thomas’ right ankle. You see where I’m going here, right?
If Thomas injured his left ankle today, then we can treat it as an isolated injury. However, if Thomas injured his right ankle today, there might be some warning bells and red flags. His history with injuries to this ankle might not affect his recovery from his current ankle injury, but there’s also a chance that it will. But without some simple reporting of which ankle is injured, it’s impossible to know whether we should be cautious in regards to his recovery or not. Seriously though… why is it so hard to report right vs left in cases like this where it might well make a big difference?
Update, November 18th: Finally, we have an answer. According to this piece by Mike Klis of the Denver Post, it is Julius Thomas’ left ankle that is injured, not the right ankle which he has a history with. Not sure why that took so long, but I’m glad to get an answer anyway.
