Dr. Hay asked to opine on how long the Giants’ defensive backs will be out with his wrist injury
Article Link: How much time will Giants’ Kayvon Thibodeaux miss after wrist surgery? We asked a doctor (msn.com)
By Darryl Slater | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
Giants coach Brian Daboll was evasive Wednesday when asked about Kayvon Thibodeaux’s recovery timeline, after the outside linebacker had wrist surgery.
So NJ Advance Media spoke with a doctor who is a wrist injury expert — David Hay, an orthopedic hand and wrist surgeon at Cedars-Sinai Kerlan-Jobe Institute in Los Angeles. He also is the Anaheim Ducks’ hand injury consultant
Thibodeaux fractured his scaphoid bone and had it repaired during Wednesday’s surgery. That small bone is located on the thumb side of the wrist, at the base of the hand.
Hay — who obviously has not examined Thibodeaux — said it is possible he won’t have to go on injured reserve. An IR stint would require a minimum four-game absence. So if Thibodeaux goes on IR this week, the soonest he could return is Nov. 10 against the Panthers in Munich.
But if Thibodeaux misses three games or fewer, Hay said he would need to play with a cumbersome cast/club. And really, that cast/club perhaps will be part of Thibodeaux’s playing plan this season, presuming he does return.
That’s because without a cast/club, Thibodeaux would be looking at a lengthy stretch of time before he can get back on the field.
“Something beyond two months,” Hay said. “Closer to three months.”
Bottom line: Thibodeaux likely will need to play with a cast/club, in order to be any kind of legitimate factor this season.
“That’s my sense,” Hay said. “There are always unusual circumstances. But if we assume it’s a down-the-middle scaphoid fracture — and the person felt like there is no way they could play in a cast — I think [it is] at least a couple months, probably between two and three, when you get enough healing and would feel comfortable to do the heavy-impact contact violence of football.”
Still, Hay left the door open for a much quicker return, if Thibodeaux and the Giants’ medical staff are OK with him playing in a cast/club.
Another big factor we don’t know — whether Thibodeaux had a non-displaced fracture. That’s less serious than a displaced fracture, which involves a bone breaking and moving out of place. A non-displaced fracture is a simpler crack — and that would be the preferrable scenario for Thibodeaux.
Still, a quick return — and perhaps avoiding IR — depends not just on Thibodeaux having a non-displaced fracture, but also “quite a bit on whether they think he could be effective in a big, reinforced cast and whether they thought they could get a big enough reinforced cast on there to feel safe,” Hay said.
He added, “The absolute worst thing is you go: ‘Oh, let’s push it at the three-week mark.’ And something happens, and now he’s out for six months. And everybody is looking at each other like, ‘Well, that was dumb.’”
Hay said scaphoid bone fracture surgery typically involves inserting a screw to stabilize the break.
“Typically, it goes on to heal reliably well,” he said. “But it can take two to four months to heal fully — and it’s quite variable, depending on the nature of the fracture.”
(Again, a displaced fracture is more serious than a non-displaced fracture.)
“Very commonly, these [scaphoid bones] break in half, and they’re all lined up [and not displaced],” Hay said. “You put the screw in them. And then it heals really well. If he has the ability to cast up the whole arm and still be effective, as long as you can protect the fracture, then it becomes risk/benefit [with returning to game action].”
So it’s not just about the nature of the fracture (displaced or non-displaced), but also about whether Thibodeaux and the Giants’ medical staff would feel comfortable with him playing in a cast/club — and how soon they’d feel comfortable.
Even though Thibodeaux doesn’t have to throw or catch — nor carry the ball, obviously — he does have to do something often that will test his wrist.