When Vikings coach Brad Childress broke out the F word (fracture) to describe Brett Favre’s ankle injury on Monday, Vikings fans cringed and others believed it would be a longshot for Favre to play Sunday against New England.
That’s not the case, according to a top NFL team orthopedist, who spoke to SI.com’s Peter King.
“I think it’s extremely misleading to say he has two ankle fractures and leave that impression,’' the orthopedist said. “Technically, with what I have read, he does. But you are not playing an NFL game with two fractures in the sense that we think of fractures.’'
The stress fracture Favre has can be tricky, but the doctor explained to King that it can be played with and medicated.
“It’s a glorified ankle sprain,” the doctor said.
I couldn’t have been the only one watching Childress and wondering why we never hear of such fractures. They are probably just called sprains usually. Favre’s heel fracture, like the stress fracture, can also be helped by a pain injection. King’s source indicated most quarterbacks would be able to play through the injuries, if it was a playoff game.
The issue seems to come down to taking an injection and pain tolerance.
In short: We’ll believe Favre is sitting when it actually happens. He’s probably played through much worse.