Saints coach Joe Vitt addressed running back Mark Ingram’s health in a press conference on Monday and his assessment wasn’t entirely positive.
According to Vitt, Ingram, who had arthroscopic knee surgery 10 days ago, won’t be ready to fully go when the team starts training camp this summer. He expects him to be up to full speed by the start of the season, but Jeff Triplett of the New Orleans Times-Picayune reports that the team will “back off” Ingram until he’s 100 percent recovered.
The knee scope was the second surgery for Ingram since the calender turned to 2012. He also had surgery to fix the turf toe problem that cut his rookie season short. It’s also the second surgery on his left knee, it was operated on while Ingram was at Alabama, and the combination of the three feeds any durability concerns you might have about Ingram going forward.
The Saints should have enough depth in the backfield to avoid overworking Ingram in camp or during the season. Chris Ivory, Darren Sproles and Pierre Thomas are all still with the team and capable of splitting time in the backfield for the Saints.