Patrick Mahomes gritted through ankle discomfort to help guide the Kansas City Chiefs to a 38-35 win over the Philadelphia Eagles in the Super Bowl on Sunday. It appears that he’ll finally be able to give his ankle the attention and rest it needs to fully recover, and we’re going to take a closer look at his prognosis going forward and into next season.
As we talked about on the blog during the playoffs, Mahomes had been dealing with the fallout of a high ankle sprain that he suffered earlier in the playoffs against the Jacksonville Jaguars. He looked uncomfortable during the AFC Championship against the Cincinnati Bengals, and it certainly affected his mobility, which was expected considering a high ankle sprain typically knock athletes out for at least a few weeks. The Chiefs advanced and had two weeks off before the Super Bowl, and Mahomes was able to protect and strengthen his ankle during that time. It was clear that he still wasn’t 100 percent, but he still scampered for 44 yards en route to a Super Bowl victory.
What’s Next?
The next steps for Mahomes will be pretty similar to the steps he followed on the lead up to the big game, in that the two key components of his recovery will be rest and physical therapy. Rest should be easy enough, as the season is over and he won’t need to step back on the field in a competitive game until September. The real key will be continuing his physical therapy.
That’s because ankle sprains involve damage to key soft tissues that help to stabilize the ankle joint. Even if swelling subsides and recovery gets to the point where the ankle is no longer painful, that doesn’t mean that the ankle is stable. Ankle instability is a real concern for athletes after a sprain, especially those athletes that rely on quick cuts, jumps or pushing hard off their feet during their sport. While Mahomes may not be the most mobile quarterback in the league, his ability to move around in the pocket and pick up yards on the ground when the situation presents itself is what arguably makes him the best quarterback in the league. If he’s slowed by this ankle injury because it never truly stabilizes, or he loses confidence in his ankle because it feels unstable, there’s a change that it could linger and affect his play.
Now, with that being said, it seems extremely unlikely that a young, highly motivated athlete who just earned league and Super Bowl MVP honors would ignore an issue that has the possibility to significantly affect his game and his future. Moreover, being a professional athlete, Mahomes has access to some of the world’s best medical care, and he’ll have a team of athletic trainer’s whose sole job this offseason is to ensure that ankle is as healthy as possible entering the 2023 season so that the Chiefs can attempt to defend their crown.
As for Mahomes, while he doesn’t believe the ankle will affect his availability for organized team activities later in the offseason, he did joke that he may not be able to play as much golf as he would like during the offseason as a result of his injury and rehab.
“I’ll for sure be ready for OTAs and everything like that,” he told reporters on Monday after NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell presented him with the Super Bowl MVP trophy. “Obviously, we’ll have to continue to rehab, continue the treatment that we were doing, and just give it some rest. I think the best thing for it is going to be rest. One thing that might take a hit is my golf game. So I’ll take a few weeks off of that.”
Congrats to Mahomes and the rest of the Chiefs, and here’s hoping that his ankle is back to full strength heading into the 2023 season!
