The Pat and Aaron Injury Report 11/3/22 with Dr. Sellman

Aaron: Now we’re talking. Little Zeppelin getting us going here on a Thursday morning. Pat and Aaron Show, 95.3 WDAE and AM 620. It’s Thursday, and you know what that means. It’s time for the injury report presented by our good friends at Florida Orthopaedic Institute in partnership with Tampa General Hospital. Speaking of good friends, joining us once again on the hotline, Dr. Jeff Sellman.

Pat: Now, Aaron, we always tell Dr. Sellman that he is our favorite, but should we tell him how good Dr. Nofsinger was last week?

Aaron: Should we make him jealous a little bit?

Dr. Sellman: I’m not really good in the color green, and I don’t like being jealous at all, so don’t tell me anything.

[laughter]

Aaron: He was terrible. He was horrible.

Pat: Awful.

[laughter]

Dr. Sellman: What the heck are you guys grooving to the morning? I thought the radio station wanted people to wake up, not [unintelligible 00:00:47] fall back to sleep with the jibber jabber.

[laughter]

Pat: Oh–

Aaron: Dr. Sellman–

Pat: He does know as well.

Aaron: Dr. Sellman, what do I do about my hurt feelings? How can you fix that? What surgery is [unintelligible 00:00:57] for that?

Dr. Sellman: I have, actually, the smallest [unintelligible 00:01:00] available and a little Vagisil to get you going.

[laughter]

Aaron: All right, let’s get into it here. Cincinnati Bengals [unintelligible 00:01:07]—

Pat: He’s blushing right now.

Aaron: I am.

Pat: He’s so red.

Aaron: I’m really red. Ja’Marr Chase, he’s not going to be placed on the injured reserve, but he is expected to miss four to six weeks with a hip injury. These hip injuries are really concerning, especially for a wide receiver like Ja’Marr Chase. Four to six weeks, is that a reasonable timeline here, Dr. Sellman?

Dr. Sellman: For what he assumed or what we assumed that he had, which is a hairline fracture of the ball and socket of the hip joint [unintelligible 00:01:35], it is reasonable for about 28 days to get optimal recovery. We got to keep in mind, though, the other issues around that joint itself and also the cartilage inside the joint. It sounds like or looks like, basically, in week seven, when he came back after the actual original injury, he did quite well. It doesn’t seem as bad. Yes, it is reasonable.

Pat: We talked a lot about this thing with Carlton Davis who, of course, is dealing with a hip, and that’s been a reoccurring thing for him, where we thought it was getting better and then he had to miss a game, and we thought it was getting better and then we could see that it slowed him a little bit. Is it the same concern with Ja’Marr Chase, or can it be completely different injuries and different situations, even though they’re both with the hip?

Dr. Sellman: Yes, it can be completely. Oftentimes, we attribute the hip to the lower back, and it just depends on where the actual injury is. Also, in this case, it does not seem like it involved the femur or the long bone of the thigh, which would be more concerning in terms of the amount of stress that happened. The other thing to also– I saw a lot of comments about it, comparing it to Bo Jackson.

This particular injury is definitely not what Bo Jackson experienced in 1991 when he actually fractured and dislocated the hip. That’s when other things get disrupted, including the blood flow. I think 28 days, I think it’s reasonable, but multiple different injuries can happen to the hip.

Pat: You mentioned the hip and the lower back. As someone who has had lower back injuries, and I know, I assume a lot of our listeners have dealt with lower back pain– When you say it can be related, is it the type of thing where if you have a bad back, if you have lower back issues, it will eventually or could eventually lead to hip issues?

Dr. Sellman: Without question. Yes, they’re so intimately related, and especially a lot of people will come in and say, “My hip hurts,” and they actually point around to the posterior part of their hip, which is more considered the lower back. It feels like you may have one or the other or both at the same time.

Aaron: I could be a hypochondriac at times, Dr. Dr. Sellman.

Pat: Is.

Dr. Sellman: No way.

Aaron: I know it’s hard to believe. Last night, I was at softball, and I don’t know if it’s because sometimes when I hear about other people’s injuries, for some reason that week, I’m dealing with that injury. I think that’s part of the hypochondriac. Ever since Shaq Barrett with the Achilles, when he tore his Achilles– Last night, I started walking on the softball field, and I just felt my Achilles was tight. It was that back of my ankle, it felt tight. It felt like any sudden movement I made at second base, I was going to straight tear that thing.

Dr. Sellman: Were you actually sitting on the benches more, or the bleachers, or were you just walking around?

Aaron: I was just walking around. I was walking around. Maybe it’s because I hadn’t stretched or something like that. If you feel it getting tight, if you feel like an ankle or something like that getting tight, do you just stretch that out? How do you get– because I did. I got a little concern. I was like, “I’m about to tear this thing.”

Dr. Sellman: [laughs] The most important thing is to stretch that calf out. It is such a high-tension area that even for us in this age group, just walking around on an everyday basis, it starts to feel really tight, and all of a sudden, you start freaking out. You can have that contribution of your brain saying, “I’m going to rupture this,” but in fact, just walking, probably not going to rupture it, unless you have other problems associated.

Aaron: By the way, speaking of the bench, I turned two double plays last night, for the record, Dr. Sellman.

Pat: Oh, boy.

Dr. Sellman: Wait. In your head or no?

Aaron: One, I think he was safe. He was called out.

Dr. Sellman: [laughs] I like it. I like it.

Pat: I want to make sure we get this one in because we don’t have a lot longer left. This is obviously very important to Buccaneer fans. We saw Shaq Barrett suffered that torn Achilles last week, exactly a week ago now, to the Baltimore Ravens. We saw how quickly Cam Akers came back from the same injury last season. I want to ask you. This isn’t the thing where like ACL injuries, we’ve gotten much better at treating them and we should just expect everyone to come back quickly like Cam Akers did, right? This is more of Cam Akers did something extremely rare and special. We can’t have the same expectations for Shaq getting back as quickly.

Dr. Sellman: Yes, 100%. This is unfortunately a career threatening on this side of the ball. When the injury happens, especially for American football players, the average time for the NFL has come back around twelve to 13 months. You’re not really full recovery until the second year of play. That really hurts the NFL prospect considering the contract and the shorter main careers than everybody else. This is this is a concerning injury.

Aaron: Real quick here. We love you so much. We’re going to go a little late, even though we’re going to get yelled at for it, but I don’t care because we love talking to you, Dr. Sellman. I want to talk about something that’s going to impact the Buccaneers this weekend. We talked about Shaq Barrett, but on the other side of the ball, Cooper Kupp. The Rams are going to be playing the Bucs, Cooper Kupp dealing with an ankle injury.

It looks like they said he dodged a bullet and it looks like he’s going to be playing. With these ankle injuries initially, what do you look at? How do you determine if a guy is going to be able to be up to par on the football field?

Dr. Sellman: Just on the side about Cooper Kupp, Sean Mcvay should think about it. Don’t get punched or don’t be kicked to his face when you’re down with 17 and you go and throw to your star receiver. Anyway, looking initially at an ankle because it’s just so important, blood flow is so important. The clue that we had for him is being able to walk. When you’re able to walk right after the injury, a few steps, not much pain, not much of a limb, then you’re pretty assured that it’s not that bad of an injury at all.

Aaron: Listen, we always love having you on, and I just ordered on Amazon a little Vagisil. I know that will make you happy. Thank you–

Dr. Sellman: If you ever need some, I carry a case with me for my athletes. That’s good.

Aaron: [laughs] Thank you so much.

Pat: He’s lying to you by the way because he’s never ordered anything off Amazon in his life. He’s the only human being alive.

Aaron: I’m going to at some point, but it’s an addiction that people have. I don’t want to jump into that. I have enough of my own already.

The Pat and Aaron injury report was presented by Tampa General Hospital in partnership with Florida Orthopaedic Institute. They provide you access to one of the top orthopedic programs in the nation. Schedule an appointment today at floridaortho.com. Dr. Sellman, we love hearing from our listeners about anybody that’s been to Florida Orthopaedic Institute, Tampa General Hospital. Always great things to say and always great things to say when you guys come on as our guest, so really appreciate it, Dr. Sellman.

Dr. Sellman: We appreciate it too. We love it.

Pat: Thanks, Doc.

Dr. Sellman: Yes.

Aaron: All right. There you have it. He really is, even though he makes fun of me a lot. I can take it.

Pat: That’s why he’s the best.

Aaron: I enjoy it.