Medical professionals weigh in on Jordan Love's injury

 

GREEN BAY, Wis. (CBS 58) -- Jordan Love is out, but for how long is anybody's guess. Packers fans say the takedown of their starting quarterback on game one of the season's a blow, but is it possible his injury will be short-lived? We spoke with medical experts.

No one would argue it was tough to see what essentially was a Hail Mary play turn into Jordan Love on the ground with a look of pain on his face, but doctors say with a knee injury, an MCL sprain is best case scenario.

The last six seconds of Friday night's Packers-Eagles game blew up social media as fans cried out with love for Jordan Love.

"Raise your hand if you thought - if when Jordan Love left the field Friday night in San Paulo, you thought the season flashed before your eyes," said Drew Olson of 97.3 The Game.

Days later, Love's injury's still the talk of sports radio in Milwaukee.

"I really, really admire you guys for having thick skin," said Julie in Madison, who called in to the Drew & KB Show on 97.3 The Game.

"We ran the spectrum from season over, he's not gonna play, to oh, maybe he can play," said Olson.

Packers management isn't committing to when he may be back, but they're also not putting Love on the injured reserve list.

"The first thing we got on Saturday was him walking down the stairs gingerly, with his backpack. The first thing I thought was like, why would they not have somebody carry his bag? He must be better than we thought," said Olson.

"There's footage of him, he's limping, but he's putting weight on it. But he's walking, so those are all really, really kind of good signs that it's hopefully not a grade three," said Dan Enz, an athletic trainer and physical therapist with UW Health.

Dan Enz says an MCL ligament injury's typically rated as grade one, two or three based on severity.

"You know, his injury was kind of a classic MCL injury, where his foot's planted and the player hit him on the outside of his leg, causing his knee to go inward. It tends to scar, and that will provide that stability back like the ligament had prior, close to what the ligament was prior to the injury. So that's why these can be non-operative," said Enz.

Enz says on another positive note, the tackle didn't happen at a super high velocity.

"I thought it was kind of funny, the irony of Aaron Rodgers going down in the first game last year and now Jordan Love goes down in the first game this year - was almost like a karma thing. But I think we'll be better off. Jordan Love will be back," said Kevin Brandt, of 97.3 The Game.

Dan Enz says from what he's seen, he's expecting Love to be out anywhere from one to six weeks.