The Packers haven’t had much to say about the status of 2011 first-round pick Derek Sherrod since putting him on the PUP list at the start of camp, but the tackle’s family is filling in some blanks to help explain why Sherrod remains off the field since breaking his leg in December 2011.
Sherrod broke both the tibia and fibula in his right leg and had surgery to repair the injury a short time later. He was on the PUP list through last year’s camp and into the regular season before a brief return to practice showed he wasn’t ready to return. His father, Louis Sherrod, explained that his son’s leg couldn’t bear weight and MRIs revealed an ankle problem that required further surgery this year.
“It was just complications from the way that the surgery was performed,” said Dezmond Sherrod, Derek’s older brother, via Bob McGinn of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “They affected other mechanisms within the leg. The tibia and fibula were broken the first time, but that affects how your knee and ankle interact. When you have something off in one area, it can affect other areas. After you have surgery, only time will tell how things work out. It wasn’t until he was ready to go back on the field and starting running and doing things, putting more pressure and body weight on it ... that’s when he noticed things weren’t where they should be as far as the timetable when to get back on the field.”
The Sherrods have no ill will toward the original surgeons, explaining that complications arise from emergency surgery and that they were happy doctors operated as promptly as they did. Louis Sherrod thinks his son is a few weeks away from getting on the field, which suggests that he’ll miss at least the first six weeks of the regular season on the PUP list while he works his way back into playing shape.