Quarterback Jordan Love #10 of the Green Bay Packers walks off the field after a knee injury … [+]
It looks like the Green Bay Packers may not have gotten any love for the upcoming NFL games. Jordan Love, the Packers’ 25-year-old starting quarterback, suffered a left knee injury, causing Packers fans to be quite concerned. That happened during the final seconds of the Packers’ opening-game 34-29 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles. A subsequent MRI revealed something between a grade 1 and grade 2 medial collateral ligament sprain, according to Ian Rapoport of NFL Media. That means Love will likely return somewhere between three and six weeks.
While no one will say, “Yep, I have an MCL sprain,” it’s certainly better news for Packers fans than a worse knee injury like an anterior cruciate ligament tear. A sprain is essentially medical-esis for a tear of a ligament. A ligament is a band of fibrous tissue that connects one bone to another in a joint and keeps that joint from moving in all directions. So if you tear a ligament badly enough, your joint can start to wobble, so to speak.
Each of your knees has four ligaments that run from your femur to your tibia and fibula: an MCL, an ACL, a posterior cruciate ligament (PCL), and a lateral collateral ligament (LCL). The “medial” is a big clue to where the MCL rotates. It runs along the medial side of your knee, the inside of your knee, or the side you can see when you put your head between your knees.
When it comes to assessing MCL sprains, less is definitely more. The lower the number, the less damage. Here is the rating system:
- Grade 1 MCL tear (mild): These tears involving less than 10% of the fibers in the ligament can lead to some tenderness and mild pain. However, the knee remains fairly stable. Such injuries can usually heal on their own without surgery. In principle you need to rest for one to three weeks.
- Grade 2 MCL tear (moderate): This involves more fibers in the ligament and usually results in more pain and tenderness, as well as some looseness that can be caused by pushing against your knee with your hand. Rest won’t be enough. You will normally need to undergo physical therapy and may even wear a knee brace to keep the knee stable so the ligament can heal. Recovery time usually takes four to six weeks. If there is additional damage to other parts of the knee, further reducing the stability of the knee, surgery may be necessary, which would extend the timeline.
- Grade 3 MCL tear (severe): This is game over when it comes to the MCL. The MCL is completely torn, potentially resulting in a loose and very unstable knee. This involves a recovery time of more than six weeks. Even longer if the knee instability requires surgery.
As you can see, a sprain between grade 1 and grade 2 would put Love’s recovery time between three and six weeks, which is consistent with what Tom Pelissero of the NFL Network Tweeted or X’d or whatever it’s called these days:
Naturally, the type of treatment needed depends not only on how stable the knee is, but also on how heavily the knee will be used. If your knee gets the most use from doing “The Dougie” on the dance floor, then maybe, just maybe, you can hold off on that while the ligament heals and spares other people. In Love’s case, stability in his knee will be quite necessary.
Fortunately, something between a grade 1 and grade 2 sprain likely means that Love’s knee is still fairly stable. That’s good news for the stability of the Packers offense this season. After all, Love is expected to be their new franchise quarterback. And the Packers want all the love they can get.
