Mystery Surrounds Smith

The Journal Gazette—February 23, 2016

Reporter Chris Goff from The Journal Gazette reports on the uncertainty of the knee injury to Notre Dame linebacker Jaylon Smith as the NFL combine begins. Some outlets have reported Smith tore his ACL and LCL while others state it was his ACL and MCL.

Goff speaks with Samuel A. Taylor, MD, a sports medicine surgeon at Hospital for Special Surgery, who has no immediate knowledge of Smith’s injury but stated the process for handling knee injuries with ACL and MCL tears typically involves waiting for the MCL to heal on its own while protected by a brace, then doing exercises to regain motion and then an ACL repair.

"Patients always ask me if this injury will have long-term impact upon the knee, and the real answer is we don’t know," Dr. Taylor said. "In general, the goal is to take a knee that has become unstable and to repair it in a way to make it stable."

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