KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Kansas City Chiefs and quarterback Patrick Mahomes picked up good news Friday after an MRI revealed no significant damage to his knee.
In a phone call with reporters Friday afternoon, head coach Andy Reid said the team was preparing to move forward for at least a few weeks while Mahomes recovers from his dislocated knee cap.
Aaron Borgmann, a 12-year former NFL physical therapy/assistant athletic trainer (most recently with the Chiefs) and owner of Borgmann Rehab Solutions, said the team’s current medical staff did a good job attending to Mahomes moments after he suffered the injury in Thursday night’s 30-6 win over the Denver Broncos.
“The medical staff did a great job of expertly identifying it, getting him to calm down and straightening the legs so they could reduce the injury on the field,” Borgmann said Friday in an interview with 41 Action News.
James Halloran, an orthopedic surgeon in the Kansas City metro, agreed, saying the sooner relocation occurs after the injury, the better.
"Right after it happens, it's always easiest to get it back in, so if you wait, if you would have left it out, it's just the muscles tighten up, everything starts to swell and you can have a lot more problems trying to get the knee cap back into position and more painful, so you usually have to use some sort of anesthesia," Halloran said.
As Mahomes starts his rehab, Borgmann said the team’s medical staff likely will evaluate his recovery on at least a daily basis.
“During rehab, there's a constant evaluation on a daily and even multi-time daily basis on how the player's progressing, what they're capable of and what they need to improve on,” Borgmann said.
Halloran expects several weeks of rehab for Mahomes, beginning soon after any inflammation decreases.
"Off the bat, you're really trying to reduce a lot of the inflammation that's going on, a lot of the swelling because he's probably going to have a fairly swollen knee today," Halloran said. "After we get that resolved, then we're working on range of motion, strengthening the quadriceps, trying to prevent any further what I call translation or subluxation of that kneecap, so probably immobilization for a week to two weeks, controlling your inflammation and also just working on strengthening around the knee."
Borgmann added that the combination of playing quarterback and the injury happening to Mahomes’ right leg will be a key point of evaluation during the process.
“We have to consider the fact that as he drops back every time, he's going to be loading that leg. He's going to put stress through that leg,” he said. “The rehab process will address this, and that's one thing unique about the player for this injury.”
The Chiefs return home for two straight games against the Green Bay Packers and Minnesota Vikings before taking to the road to play the Tennessee Titans in Nashville and the Los Angeles Chargers in Mexico City.
After that, the team has a bye week before starting a five-game sprint to the end of the season with a home game against the Oakland Raiders on Dec. 1.
