Rashee Rice‘s knee injury has recently been the big unknown for the <a href="http://www.archysport.com/2022/01/influential-nfl-players-of-2021/" title="Influential NFL Players Of 2021″>Kansas City Chiefs in the NFL. Now the wide receiver has at least received some positive news about his condition.
Rice injured his knee in a collision with Patrick Mahomes during the Week 4 win over the Los Angeles Chargers. However, an exact diagnosis has not yet been made. After an arthroscopy, which Dr. Dan Cooper carried out this has now taken place provisionally and is relatively positive, as Ian Rapoport from the “NFL Network” reported.
Accordingly, Rice’s anterior cruciate ligament is said to be so intact that reconstruction is not necessary. However, the outer band is damaged and needs to be repaired. A corresponding operation apparently took place on Tuesday and will result in a downtime of around four months. Since he would only be able to train again afterwards, Rice’s season was still over.
Even before the operation there was a residual risk regarding the cruciate ligament, but the procedure brought positive certainty. Nevertheless, the Chiefs currently assume that Rice will be fully fit again for the 2025 season.
Will Rice’s replacement come from our own ranks?
In addition to Rice, Marquise Brown is also expected to miss the entire season with a shoulder injury. After undergoing surgery following an injury in the preseason, he still has no precise timetable for his return to training.
The Week 5 Monday Night Game against the Saints (26:13) however, showed how the Saints could make up for Rice’s loss. In addition to a larger role for tight end Travis Kelce (10 targets), returnee JuJu Smith-Schuster (8 targets) also played a prominent role and even led the team with 130 yards (7 REC).
