Dr. James Andrews has talked a lot over the last week. Probably too much for Washington Redskins coach Mike Shanahan's taste. Robert Griffin III's doctor performed surgery on the most famous knee in America on Wednesday, so folks are going to ask questions.
"Well, I really can't talk specifically about an injury from just the privacy act of that young man's career," Andrews said Thursday on Sirius XM's health channel, via The Washington Post. "But obviously I had to operate on his knee [Wednesday]. And it's a shame, but he had a re-injury to his ACL.
"He's already waiting on me this morning to start his rehab and start his recovery. A fine young man and a great talent. We're looking forward to trying to get him back, ready for next season. That's about the gist of it."
Andrews went over the breakdown in communication (once again) from when Griffin was originally hurt against the Baltimore Ravens, but his most interesting comments were on the success rate of anterior cruciate ligament surgeries.
"Well, we talk about ACL reconstructive procedures -- [it's] one of our best operations we do in sports, as far as the overall results," he said. "Ninety-five percent, is just a figure that comes out of the head right now, success rate. That's across the board.
"Now, if you take an NFL running back that's got to depend on his knee function probably at the highest level, there's about 55 percent of them that are still playing football after what we would call a successful ACL surgery, about 55 percent still playing actively in the NFL after two years.
"So is that a failure of the ACL surgery? No, that's a failure of that running back losing a step and losing the ability to cut on a dime and is not able to play. So it's not as rosy as what it might look, as you go up the ladder to try to play football professionally after an ACL operation."
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