30
November
2018
|
07:00 AM
America/New_York

'It's not a great place to be': Why Ravens QB Joe Flacco's hip injury is worrisome

The Baltimore Sun reports on Baltimore Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco who is returning to the field after a right hip injury. The exact type of injury has not been revealed.

Danyal H. Nawabi, MD, FRCS, sports medicine surgeon at HSS, who did not treat Flacco, explains there are two main reasons not to play before fully recovering.

First, a player should not have lingering discomfort. "If you get them back to 80, 90 percent, they're playing at 80, 90 percent the whole season with a little bit of a nick, which then predisposes you to further injury because you're not activating all your muscles and using your joint as it should be used," says Dr. Nawabi.

Secondly, it's important to prevent longer-term damage by allowing a player to play prematurely. "And the key thing with the hip joint is degenerative joint disease, subjecting that hip to becoming arthritic, which unfortunately we see more and more now in younger patients," states Dr. Nawabi.

Read the full article at BaltimoreSun.com. This also appeared in the December 1, 2018 print edition.