(Newswire.net — October 25, 2019) — It was all going so well.
The Kansas City Chiefs had won five of their opening seven games in NFL 2019, and they were looking a red-hot cert to win AFC West and book their place in the post-season matches.
And then Patrick Mahomes got injured.
This is being written in the past tense because you almost feel like the Chiefs’ season is over before it has practically even begun. Despite their brilliant start, the loss of their talismanic quarterback will surely bring about a downturn in fortunes.
‘Patrick Mahomes’ – Thomson 202019 via Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0)
The 24-year-old suffered what sounds like the most painful injury imaginable – a dislocated kneecap – in the Chiefs’ 30-6 demolition of the Denver Broncos.
It is believed from medical reports that Mahomes faces a least a month on the sidelines and possibly even more, and that means he could miss key games against a rampant Green Bay Packers and fellow NFC North outfit the Minnesota Vikings, as well as highly winnable ties with the Tennessee Titans and LA Chargers.
For a franchise with aspirations of a long-overdue return to the big time, this is a monumental blow. Anyone who wants to take a look at Kansas City Chiefs’ list of achievements can get a good overview on this list of NFL teams and they will be aware that they haven’t made a Super Bowl appearance since 1969.
Taking a Knee
So, how on earth do you replace the NFL MVP who broke pretty much every record going in 2018? To make matters worse, his stats in the early going of the 2019 campaign have been equally impressive – 2180 passing yards and assisting in 15 touchdowns in barely seven completed games is the stuff of legend.
In will come the veteran Matt Moore to fill the sizable void left behind by Mahomes, and you do wonder how costly that will prove to be in the final shake-up if a couple of wins are left on the table in the absence of their inspirational thrower.
‘Arrowhead Stadium’ – IAHilltopper via Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0)
The team at CBS Sports brought in Dr Rodney Brenner, an orthopaedic surgeon, to talk through the best and worse case scenarios for Mahomes and what kind of a timeframe Chiefs fans can expect before they see their star in action again.
He confirmed that if the patella realigns perfectly “the timetable for return to play would likely be around 4-6 weeks”. Dr Brenner also noted that “…if the patella comes back into the joint but stays tilted towards the lateral side, it is more likely to develop into recurrent dislocations”.
And to complete a hat-trick of worries for everyone associated with the Chiefs, the doctor also hinted that surgical intervention may be necessary if a loose piece of cartilage is discovered – which could keep Mahomes on the touchline for several months.
So there you go: that’s the medical view, and the prognosis is not a good one for the player himself or the franchise that is so reliant on his expertise.
You can forgive the Chiefs for feeling rather pessimistic of landing their first Super Bowl in 50 years…