Gronk sheds walking boot

[Deus Irae]

Ok so I know a lot of people sincerely dislike Colin Cowherd, but he did just make a valid point on the herd. He was talking about how Gronk scored 12 of his 17 touchdowns against not so stellar teams. On the flip side, he went on to say Aaron Hernandez' performance seems to have a direct effect on how the Patriots play. Obviously Gronk is important, but is it possible that we need hernandez more?

No, and Cowherd is cherry picking again. Was it Gronk's fault that Brady missed him with what should have been a TD pass against the Ravens, for example?

 

[PromisedLand]

All true. The key to severity is not so much about how the ankle turned, but how much torque was put on his lower leg. Rolling the ankle inward (foot outward) and rotating the lower leg at the same time puts pressure on the ligaments holding the 2 leg bones together.

As per the picture above, Gronk definitely suffered an eversion which likely tore the medial ligaments connecting his leg bone to his ankle/foot. Again, don't know how severe this tearing was but it is pretty much the same as tearing lateral ligaments on the outside of the ankle on a "normal" sprain.

The high ankle sprain results from how much his lower leg rotated at the same time. After watching the replay (available on nfl.com), it did look like there was some rotation involved...so I would say there is a good possibility that the ligaments holding the tibia/fibula together were stressed, making a high ankle sprain diagnosis accurate. However, there didn't seem to be much rotation and the ankle released pretty quickly...so that rotational stress may have been pretty minimal.

Based on observational evidence post-injury, I would say the medial sprain was reasonably severe, though not close to a complete tear. As for the high ankle sprain, it looks like it might be relatively minor. If true, that would mean that Gronk would have a hard time cutting (particularly to his left) but shouldn't be in too much pain when digging in to block or in straight line running movements or jumping. If the medial sprain wasn't as severe as it looked or if he has inhuman healing capabilities, he may be close to 100% by Sunday.

Wow. That was a really a lot of posing as an expert there. Maybe next time try looking up the names of the bones instead of calling it the "leg bone".

 

[Metaphors]

Wow. That was a really a lot of posing as an expert there. Maybe next time try looking up the names of the bones instead of calling it the "leg bone".

You mean besides the actual reference in my post to the tibia and fibula? Does repeating it multiple times make my point more valid? Were you confused as to which part of Gronk's skeletal structure I was referring?

Instead of "posing as an expert", I was trying to show that having his ankle bend a certain way does not automatically indicate a high ankle sprain. And even if it is a high ankle sprain, they are not all created equal. Both points that people on this board and just about every "expert" in the media seem to be neglecting to mention.

Any issues with the actual substance of my post?

 

[Gronkandez]

Gronk picture

 

[sevengables_2207]

Wow. That was a really a lot of posing as an expert there. Maybe next time try looking up the names of the bones instead of calling it the "leg bone".

Since the foot everted, the sprain occurred on the medial side of the ankle/foot.

Ergo, the "leg bone" in question is the tibia, and the ligaments sprained are what are collectively known as the deltoid ligaments that span the tibia, talus, navicular and calcaneus bones. Not sure if the sprain is to all of these ligaments (e.g. talocalcaneal, anterior tibiotalar, posterior tibiotalar, tibionavicular) but with Gronk having shed his walking boot and seemingly moving without a hitch in his step, it is quite possible that only the talocalcaneal and/or the tibiotalar ligaments were sprained.

 

[kennyb]

I think it is good news, but I don't think it means he will be 100% necessarily. I hope he will be though. But just that I'm not counting on it.