There\u2019s been a little mystery surrounding Detroit Lions tight end Sam LaPora back injury that cost him the final eight games of the season. All we\u2019ve really heard is that it required season-ending surgery, and the 2023 second-round pick is expected to be ready by training camp in 2026.<\/p>\n
On locker room cleanout day, LaPorta spoke to the media for the first time since the surgery and gave a little more background on what happened. According to LaPorta, he sustained an accumulation of falls and hits in games leading up to the Washington Commanders game in Week 10, but in that game alone, that\u2019s when one of his vertebrae discs \u201cfully herniated.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNumbness and tingling and muscle loss\u2013it happened shortly after that,\u201d LaPorta said. \u201cWhen you can\u2019t do a single-leg calf raise, it\u2019s kinda hard to play football. So that\u2019s kind of where we were at.\u201d<\/p>\n
Initially, LaPorta was hoping it was on the minor end of these injuries. Sometimes, they can take just a couple weeks to feel better, sometimes it\u2019s closer to a couple months. In extreme cases, it requires surgery, and, unfortunately, after a couple weeks of not improving, the team and LaPorta agreed that he fell into the last category. So the Lions placed him on injured reserve and LaPorta got the surgery.<\/p>\n
\u201cBacks aren\u2019t anything to mess with and I want to have a long, healthy career, so it was the best route,\u201d LaPorta said.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s now been six weeks since the procedure, and LaPorta is excited about the new phase of rehab he\u2019ll be starting this week. He confirmed coach Dan Campbell\u2019s target of being ready by training camp this upcoming offseason.<\/p>\n
\u201cHopefully by OTAs I\u2019m up running around and then, of course, we\u2019ll be in pads in training camp,\u201d LaPorta siad. \u201cSo, it\u2019s a lot different than other sports, just to be able to brace for those hits, and the accumulation of a long NFL season, I\u2019ve really got to get this back right before I\u2019m out there running around in pads and taking those hits and such.\u201d<\/p>\n
LaPorta said this ordeal\u2014the first major injury of his athletic career\u2014won\u2019t necessarily change how he plays the game. While it\u2019s obviously important to try and stay healthy as long as possible, he\u2019s not going to let one injury cause him to scale back his determination on each play, even if it means absorbing multiple hits.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can\u2019t really worry about those things, to be honest. You just have to assume that you\u2019re going to make it through the game healthy and you\u2019re going to give your best effort every week when you go out,\u201d LaPorta said. \u201cThe freak accidents happen. You train, you prepare, and get you body as best as you can for the season, and then some things happen, and you\u2019ve just got to live with the results, unfortunately. It\u2019s the game we play.\u201d<\/p>\n
LaPorta finished the season with 40 catches for 489 yards in nine contest, a pace that would have produced career-high numbers for a player that was already playing at a Pro Bowl level. That\u2019s not to mention the clear progress he made as a blocker in both the run and pass game. He\u2019s clearly proud of the progress he\u2019s made and is hoping to pick up right where he left off once he\u2019s back on the field again.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was very happy with how I was playing in my third season,\u201d LaPorta said. \u201cI felt like I was making strides even from my first and second year, and hopefully an even better player to come in the future once I rehab and get healthy again.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There\u2019s been a little mystery surrounding Detroit Lions tight end Sam LaPora back injury that cost him the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":657149,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[13944,153,1889,7,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-657148","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-detroit-lions-injury-report","9":"tag-detroit-lions-news","10":"tag-detroit-lions-quotes","11":"tag-football","12":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115845228863707472","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657148","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=657148"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657148\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/657149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=657148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=657148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=657148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}