"It's a triceps tendon injury, which is the back of the arm," Dhanaraj said. "It attaches to the elbow, and its job is to extend the elbow. Pushing, as a lineman, that's where you'd use your triceps." Most of the time when you repair these in athletes, it's a couple weeks of immobilization, followed by several weeks — if not months — of physical therapy. The usual return to play is anywhere between four-to-six months. He is way earlier than that."
Will Graham be limited? "It definitely will be weaker," Dhanaraj said. "The point is, you reattach the tendon, and then it takes time, months, to strengthen it. Forcefully extending, pushing, could hypothetically be weaker. They could brace him in a certain position in which he's not really forcefully extending. He could still tackle."
Because Graham has said this is his last season, Dhanaraj said that it would not be unheard of for Graham to play in the Super Bowl with this injury, and then call it a career. "It's the Super Bowl. He could play through this game no matter what happens to the elbow. Unless that elbow is completely ruptured and he can't physically move it, he could play. Because the truth is, could he get it re-repaired after the Super Bowl? Well, yeah. Even when I talk to my regular patients I'm like, 'I guess you could play through this... if it's the Super Bowl.' That's the caveat I use." So there's a high likelihood that Graham could suffer a setback with this injury, but since it's the Super Bowl and it's his last season anyway, who cares?"
"Exactly," Dhanaraj said. "I would guess that is what is going through his mind and the doctors who are treating him are saying the same thing. You can rotate him in. He's not going to play every snap, but being in a rotation is ideal."
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