Last Thursday, Chiefs receiver Dexter McCluster had a “minor procedure” to clean an infection out of his ankle. The infection wasn’t MRSA, but it was still potent enough to knock him out of Sunday’s game at Oakland.
As the Chiefs prepare to host the Colts, McCluster is moving toward a return. He practiced on a limited basis on Wednesday and Thursday.
“I had no idea what that was at first,” McCluster told reporters on Thursday regarding the infection. “My mom was calling me and asking me what it was, [and I said] we don’t know what it is. They went in there -- and thank God that it wasn’t –- it was something that they could get in and get cleaned out and help me get back out there early.”
The infection arose from a routine wound.
“I just thought, ‘Wow, something that small,’ a cut that I get every day in this sport. It’s very serious, I took it very seriously,” McCluster said. “I wanted to make sure it didn’t move and it didn’t spread, that it didn’t infect my body as a whole. They did a great job going in and finding what it was and giving me the right things to take to move forward.”
He said the cut happened when he was scoring a touchdown on a punt return against the Redskins.
"[I]t was just a small cut, I took a shower, bandaged it up and kept it moving,” McCluster said. “Something must have crept in there underneath all of that.”
It sounds like the infection is fully healed, and that McCluster will be back on the field soon, getting more small, routine cuts that hopefully don’t get infected.