MCL Injuries
Wednesday, February 9, 2022

by Merby Curtis & Liz Bonis, WKRC

Watch full interview here

CINCINNATI (WKRC) – Bengals tight end C.J. Uzomah has said he’s not missing the biggest game of his life, even though he’s been diagnosed with an MCL sprain in his knee. He may be right.

That injury is not uncommon. In fact, there is an athlete who has a similar injury. It was a cheerleading move that left Georgia with an MCL sprain. “I felt it pop, and I didn’t think much of it,” said Georgia. “I suddenly hit the ground, and it’s just an instant pain, and I started crying.” She got a little inspiration this week, however, when Uzomah pulled his brace off at the Bengals pep rally at Paul Brown Stadium.

Uzomah also announced he will not miss the biggest game of his life. “Every day of rehab," Uzomah said. "If I wake up and I'm like, 'It's a little sore,' it doesn't matter." “An MCL is the medial collateral ligament,” said Dr. Adam Metzler, an orthopedic surgeon at OrthoCincy. “It’s one of the stabilizing ligaments on the inside aspects of the knee.”

Dr. Metzler is Georgia’s physician at OrthoCincy in Edgewood. He’s also one of the top knee sports medicine specialists in the area. As he showed on an MRI, the dark edge is what an MCL sprain looks like. The good news is that with time, taking the weight off the injury, and the right physical therapy, athletes can often return to play in a matter of weeks.

“It’s going to be exciting to see, obviously we saw him through his brace down, and somewhat Jog around the field,” said Dr. Metzler. “What you haven’t seen him do is go through progression and routes, so it’s going to be a balance of how much he wants to play and how much the medical staff is going to allow him to play, based on his performance.”

Georgia, who got to give up her crutches on Wednesday, is cheering him on, all the way.

To train your knees to reduce injury risk, click here.