Vikings First-Rounder Christian Darrisaw Undergoes 'Minor Procedure' for Core Injury
Vikings first-round pick Christian Darrisaw continues to be held back by a groin injury that ideally would've stopped being an issue much earlier this offseason. He's done almost nothing in training camp, and it's been such a difficult recovery that Darrisaw was away from the team on Wednesday visiting with a specialist.
Darrisaw went to Philadelphia to see Dr. William Meyers, a renowned expert on core injuries. Per NFL Network, he "underwent a minor core-muscle procedure" with Meyers, who also performed Darrisaw's initial surgery back in January. The visit and surgery reportedly went well.
That's good news for the Vikings and Darrisaw, who must have simply wanted clarity on an injury that Mike Zimmer recently described as "nagging" and "one step forward, two steps back."
"They tell me one thing and it ends up being something else," Zimmer said after Thursday's practice. "I don't know. It was taken care of in January. We didn't expect this."
Meyers has treated many NFL players, including former Vikings running back Adrian Peterson, as KSTP's Darren Wolfson points out.
There's only so much we know about the sequence of events and what exactly happened to throw things off of schedule. Darrisaw saw Meyers for core surgery in January to repair a groin injury that he played with at Virginia Tech in 2020, causing him to miss a game in November.
Here's an excerpt from a March story on Darrisaw in the Roanoke Times:
Darrisaw would feel sharp pain in his thigh from basic movements like sitting down when the injury was at its worst, but he was pain free when he travelled to Philadelphia for an MRI at The Vincera Institute in December.
“It was kind of a precautionary thing,” Darrisaw’s mother Kim Cherry said. “He wasn't having immediate pain, but since it was a recent problem area they wanted him to get it checked out."
The scan revealed a core muscle injury to his groin, a tear or group of small tears to the core muscles which can occur from the chest to mid-thigh.
“With the combine up in the air, I had nothing to lose,” Darrisaw said. “Teams would rather have you healthy. I knew it would be a weight off my shoulders if I got into surgery right here, right now."
And that’s what he did. Darrisaw’s surgery was performed by The Vincera Institute’s founder Dr. William Meyers, who is a pioneer in the treatment of core muscle injuries. His list of past clients include Marshawn Lynch, Adrian Peterson and Arian Foster as well as numerous other high-profile professional athletes.
After the surgery, Darrisaw received a "four to nine week rehab timeline" and began rehabbing and working out at EXOS in Florida. He was cleared at the medical combine but was limited to position drills at VT's pro day. The injury likely contributed to his slide in the first round of April's draft, although the Vikings clearly felt comfortable enough with his medical situation to take him 23rd overall.
Since then, there must've been some sort of re-aggravation or complication in the recovery process, because it's now mid-August and Darrisaw still hasn't taken more than a couple live reps.
So, with the season approaching, Darrisaw went back to Philly to see Meyers, who determined that an additional procedure was needed.
Although Tom Pelissero's tweet says that the hope is Darrisaw is ready for Week 1, I would be shocked if he was the starter at left tackle in Cincinnati on September 12th. Veteran Rashod Hill has been getting all of the work there with the starters and the Vikings feel comfortable with what he gives them at that position, particularly in pass protection. Even when Darrisaw gets healthy, he will need a lot of practice time to get up to speed and be ready for game action after essentially missing all of training camp (and it seems unlikely that he will be able to take any snaps during the preseason).
The best-case scenario for the Vikings is either that Hill plays well enough for Darrisaw to basically take a medical redshirt year, or that the rookie gradually gets back to 100 percent is able to take over at left tackle sometime during the season.
“I know he’s taking it one day at a time and working really hard with (head athletic trainer) Eric Sugarman," Vikings offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak said on Thursday. "He’s been working his tail off. We’re just being cautious and taking it slow. When he’s back, we’ll take him. Until then, we’re getting a lot of good reps for Rashod Hill.”
“I wouldn’t put a number on it," Kubiak said when asked how much time Darrisaw would need to get ready to play. "With any player coming off an injury, they’re all different. I would say when he’s been here, he’s been really sharp and really dialed in, so mentally I don’t think it’ll be a problem. We’ve just got to get his physical reps and get his conditioning."
It remains to be seen when the Vikings' first-round pick will end up making his NFL debut.
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