HOUSTON – Texans wide receiver Tank Dell suffered extensive damage to his left knee beyond tearing his anterior cruciate ligament and dislocating the entire knee.
As Texans coach DeMeco Ryan’s alluded to in his news conference, the former University of Houston standout has additional damage to his knee that will need to be repaired.
Dell tore his medial collateral and lateral collateral ligaments and sustained damage to his meniscus, according to league sources.
Dell suffered a season-ending injury Sunday while catching a touchdown pass against the Kansas City Chiefs when he collided with teammate Jared Wayne in the end zone.
“It’s unfortunately a significant knee injury,” Ryans said as he updated Dell’s status. Monday during a news conference at NRG Stadium. “He dislocated his knee, he tore his ACL, and some other things there he will have to get repaired. So, he’ll be out for the year. Tough news.”
His outlook to play next season, due to the timing of the injury and the severity and multitude of the damage that will require more than one surgical procedure to repair all is regarded as an extremely unlikely scenario. Dell has a long, grueling road of recovery ahead of him.
“This is a much more difficult recovery than just an ACL, it’s a knee dislocation with three of four major ligaments torn and it’s a long road back,” former 17-year NFL team head doctor David Chao, an orthopedic surgeon and the owner of Sports Injury Central, a website that analyzes sports injuries, told KPRC 2 in a telephone interview. “Unfortunately, it has to be considered career threatening, but we all hope not career-ending. Surgery is usually staged with this severe an injury. Whatever you can repair, you repair now, the MCL and LCL. The ACL is typically a reconstruction and you delay that until later when swelling goes down and there’s more mobility.
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“A typical recovery timetable, it would be great if he could participate at some point next season, but it’s far from guaranteed he will play at any point next season. It’s similar to what happened with Browns running back Nick Chubb. They’re both knee dislocations, but not all knee dislocations are the same. This is a much more complicated surgery process than an isolated ACL and, as such, it’s going to be multiple surgeries and lots of follow-up. As much as this is a devastating injury, Nick Chubb did return to play his next season. Let’s hope for a similar good outcome for Tank Dell.”
It’s a devastating medical setback for Dell, who traveled back to Houston on Sunday after being treated and released from the University of Kansas Medical Center trauma unit.
Dell wrote on social media in an exchange with former NFL wide receiver Chad Ochocinco: ‘I’ll be back.’
Ryans declined to elaborate on whether Dell will be able to play football next season.
‘Right now, the focus is just on Tank, just going through this process, getting the surgery, getting recovered, we’ll deal with that when it comes,” Ryans said. “I don’t think it’s the time right now to discuss what’s going to happen next season with Tank, just allow him to get this time to heal up and recover.”
This marks the latest adversity for Dell, 25, whose dynamic rookie season last year was ended prematurely by a broken fibula that required surgery to repair the damage. Months later, Dell was the victim of a gunshot wound in his leg during a mass shooting in Florida while attending a party as an innocent bystander.
Dell posted a broken heart on social media as well as an inspirational video on TikTok with the caption: “When you want something so bad, you got a different attachment to it.” with the hashtag #noretreatnosurrender.
“It’s not easy to see your brother go down like that,” said Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud, who considers Dell his best friend. “It’s not easy. I think everybody saw how hard I took it. There’s not a lot to say, but this isn’t the end for him. This is just another bump in the road. There’s always light at the end of the tunnel.
“I think just for people to give Tank a little space right now and just pray for him from afar. Let him go through this because the worst thing that you want to hear is everything’s going to be okay and all those types of things. Clearly, he doesn’t want to hear that. He needs to hear the truth. It’s not easy, but I’m going to be here for him and that’s my brother through thick and thin, through life. I’m going to be here for him.”
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