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Doctor: Palmer knee injury 'potentially career-ending'Associated Press


CINCINNATI -- Carson Palmer's knee injury was "devastating and potentially career-ending," involving numerous ligament tears, a shredded ligament, damaged cartilage and a dislocated kneecap, his surgeon said Thursday.

The Cincinnati Bengals quarterback tore ligaments in his left knee when he was hit by Pittsburgh's Kimo von Oelhoffen on his first pass during the Steelers' 31-17 playoff victory Sunday.

The team announced that he had torn the anterior cruciate and medial collateral ligaments. The damage was much more extensive and severe, but Dr. Lonnie Paulos said surgery went well and Palmer could be back for the start of the season.

Palmer had surgery Tuesday in Houston. Doctors used grafts from other parts of his body and donated tissue to fix the damage during an operation that lasted more than two hours. Palmer headed back to California on Thursday to do his rehabilitation.

"It's not just like it was a torn ACL," Paulos said Thursday, in a phone interview from Houston. "It's a magnitude more difficult to recover from and repair. It can and has ended careers, without a doubt.

"However, I feel very comfortable with Carson as an athlete and the heart that he's got. In the end, that's the bottom line. I can see the look in his eye already. He's ready to get going," he said.

Paulos, an orthopedic surgeon who has worked with the U.S. Ski Team since 1983, replaced the anterior cruciate ligament, which runs through the middle of the knee and provides stability. He said the medial collateral ligament, which runs along the side of the knee, was damaged "real bad."

"On a scale of one to three, it was a four," he said. "It was off the chart. It was pretty badly damaged -- shredded is the better term."

The kneecap dislocated when Palmer was hit, damaging tissue around it. There was also some cartilage damage, he said.

Paulos was able to repair the knee without removing pieces of cartilage or soft tissue, a good sign.

"The things that were torn could be repaired," he said. "They were not torn beyond repair. So he's got all his parts in there, which is good. We're optimistic, actually."

If rehabilitation goes well, Palmer could be running in a couple months and might be able to play in the first regular-season game, Paulos said. The 2006 schedule hasn't been set.

Palmer has worn a protective brace on the left knee since he sprained it near the end of the 2004 season. The knee bowed inward on von Oelhoffen's hit even though Palmer was wearing the brace.

"The brace didn't function well in this environment and should have done better than it did, frankly," Paulos said.

The plan is for Palmer to wear more substantial braces on both knees when he returns.

"No brace is perfect," Paulos said. "No brace can prevent every injury, but they do help."

Paulos saw the replay of the injury and wasn't surprised at the extent of the damage it caused. Palmer has absolved von Oelhoffen, saying he didn't think the lineman was trying to hurt him. The lineman said he was trying to sack Palmer, not injure him. He wasn't penalized for the hit.

Palmer made the Pro Bowl in only his second season as a starter, throwing an NFL-leading 32 touchdown passes. The club extended his contract through the 2014 season.

Jon Kitna, who has been Palmer's backup and mentor the last two years, can become a free agent. Palmer's injury will force the Bengals to make sure they have another reliable quarterback on board.

Can you imagine rooting for this poor team?  They finally stop sucking, find their franchise QB, and BOOM goes his knee.

The Bengals can all get gonorrhea and rot in hell for all I care.  Thanks Chad Johnson, you officially made me hate the team you're on.  I'll start rooting for Cincy when you turn against your teammates and talk junk about your coach and get booted off the team.  Thank you Pittsburgh!  
:D

Well, what do ya know?  They're little footballs!

LOL, I appreciate the sense of humor.   :D

I dont know what happened between Johnson and lewis..I'll go read that thread right now. But, no matter how bad it is, you have to feel bad for the Bengal fans.

I agree.  You wait a million years after being the worst team in football in the 90's, you FINALLY are a contender, and then in 30 minutes, your franchise QB's career is in serious jeopardy and your star WR takes a swing at your star head coach.

You guys are the most alarmist bunch of freaks I have ever seen...Carson will be back at the start of next season, and as a QB who never leaves the pocket anyway, expect the injury to have minimal effect on his career moving forward.

sweet jesus...the sky is falling, the sky is falling!

I would take a Palmer with a spaghetti knee over Alex Smith.

LMFAO....now that is classic humor right there!!!!!  ;D

I too feel Plamer will be back next season. It was a bad injury but the Doctor seems to think the surgery went fine and Palmer will be back on the field next season!!!!!

Hey, relax, Champ!  No one said the sky was falling.  I merely provided you with the story.  Many quarterbacks play with bad knees.  I believe we had one somewhere near here that managed OK...I only brought it up because Cincy has been a league laughingstock for over a decade.  The team finally gets its QB of the next decade, and he goes out and totally shreds his knee.  Imagine having to hear that your franchise player, the one for whom you've been waiting since, really, BEFORE Boomer Esiason, has blown out his knee in such a horrible fashion as to jeopardize his career.

Palmer's doctor quells fears about QB's surgery
ESPN.com news services


While Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Carson Palmer's knee injury was deemed severe, the initial reports of possible long-term effects were overstated, Palmer's surgeon, Dr. Lonnie Paulos, said in a statement released by the team Thursday.

Palmer was hit at the knee shortly after planting to throw.
"I believe and regret that media reports based on interviews with me have misinterpreted my view of Carson Palmer's knee injury. Though the injury was serious, the essential fact remains that his ACL and MCL have been repaired.

"I would consider this a typical ACL-MCL football injury. Comments attributed to me that the knee injury was 'devastating and potentially career ending' were meant to describe such injuries in general. I was accurately quoted by The Associated Press that my bottom line is optimism regarding Carson's prognosis. With a successful rehabilitation program, he has an excellent chance of being medically cleared for play at the start of the 2006 regular season."

Paulos, in the AP interview Thursday, said the damage was more severe and extensive.

"It's not just like it was a torn ACL," Paulos told the AP. "It's a magnitude more difficult to recover from and repair. It can and has ended careers, without a doubt."

Paulos, however, assures Bengals fans that Palmer will be ready for next season.

"He did great," Paulos told The Cincinnati Enquirer. "He's already rehabbing. He's a great athlete. He's a stud. He'll be back in a few months."



http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=2290916

Here is the latest from ESPN!!!!!

This is good news for Bengals fans...Carson is such an amazingly talented QB that it would have been nothing short of criminal to see his career end so prematurely.

I concour!!!!!  :)

...and Stan Van Gundy left for family reasons...   ::)

If it's serious it's serious. I hate when things are played down, God I hate overly optimistic people.  Of course he'll be back with a successful rehabilitation program and be cleared to start next season, so will Culpepper.  But we'll have to wait and see how serious it really was. ::cough cough: Chad Pennington

In much the same way that I hate overly pessimistic ones, I suppose...  ;D

Me too!  That's why I hover on being a realist.  ;)