During the Lions’ Thanksgiving win over the Packers, Erin Andrews of FOX Sports reported that Lions wide receiver Calvin Johnson has been having fluid drained from his right knee throughout the season.
That Johnson has been bothered by his knee is not new information. Johnson has missed one game because of the injury and he regularly sits out a day or two of practice to manage the condition well enough for him to be on the field each week.
Johnson was asked specifically about having his knee drained, but would neither confirm nor deny whether that was part of the maintenance being done to keep his knee feeling good each week. Neither would coach Jim Schwartz, although he did say there would be nothing unusual about such an approach.
“You know me, the answer is no, no and no,” Schwartz said, via the Detroit News. “I wasn’t around or watching TV during those reports. I don’t know that that’s unusual for players in the NFL. This goes back as long as I’ve been here or maybe as long as I’ve been in the NFL that there are a lot of players that have stuff like that which requires to get them to game day, but I don’t comment on any individual player’s injury situation.”
Whatever Johnson’s doing for his knee, there haven’t been any negative effects on the field. He’s got 72 catches for 1,299 yards and 12 touchdowns in 11 games and he’ll set the Lions’ franchise record for career receiving yards if he picks up 40 yards against the Eagles this weekend.