Analysis

11/4/22

4 min read

How Should Ja'Marr Chase Manage Hip Injury?

How Should Ja'Marr Chase Manage Hip Injury?

The absence of Ja’Marr Chase was felt by the Bengals this past Monday night as it resulted in their lowest point total of the season, a mere 13. Their gameplan and play-calling appeared altered as the Bengals went from 54 five-or-more step drops out of 305 dropbacks (18%) from Weeks 1-7 to the two such dropbacks (5%) during this past outing.

Chase has been absent from practice, and he was seen on crutches as he receives treatment for his injured right hip. Chase is reportedly dealing with a hairline fracture and labral tear that will not require surgery. Reports also suggest that he may be sidelined for four-to-six weeks, so the Bengals' offense has some figuring out to do during that time.

Chase Injury Details

Chase was initially injured while scoring a touchdown against the Saints in the third quarter of Week 6. You can see him have an awkward step with a defender on his back where he experiences a posterior force through his hip. Posterior is an anatomical term that means towards the back. The event likely caused the head of the femur to jam the back portion of his socket resulting in his injury.

Chase did not appear in significant pain after subtly reaching to his right thigh at the conclusion of his touchdown dance. Chase was able to finish the game and popped up on the injury report with what was deemed a sore hip. His injury resurfaced while running a vertical route right before halftime against the Falcons, and once again, he was able to complete the game. The extent of the injury was not reported on until later the following week.

An injury to the labrum can be complicated and we can’t quite know what the outcome will be just yet. Nonetheless, let’s dig into what the injury is and more importantly, what it means for Chase upon his eventual return.

Injury Outlook

The hip labrum is a dense cartilage tissue that encircles the socket providing extra surface area to help disperse loads, absorb shock, and lubricate the joint. There are different types of ways to injure your labrum and the likely culprit in Chase’s case is from the trauma he experienced after scoring his touchdown. The diagnosis of labral tears is often delayed due to the complex anatomy of the hip, the non-specific presentation of the injury, and the specific imaging required to confirm the labrum’s involvement.

That is likely why Chase’s injury was not identified until almost two weeks after the event. It is possible that Chase injured his labrum during Week 6 and the hairline fracture that accompanies his labral tear developed as he attempted to practice and play with his injury. Hairline fractures, also referred to as stress fractures, are caused by repetitive stress to an area, and if Chase’s labrum is unable to disperse the forces as it would normally do, the continued load could result in damage.

Chase is dealing with an injury to two different tissue types, and each of these tissues have their own rates of healing. An athlete with a stress fracture can take between three-to-six weeks to return to play, and an athlete with a labral tear can return in four weeks if symptoms subside.

Returning to play from a stress fracture is less complicated than the process to return after a labral tear. Imaging can be performed to monitor the progress of the fracture before resuming full activity. As we noted, the labrum is a bit more complicated. The vascularization, or blood supply, of the labrum has been a topic of interest, but the consensus is that the labrum has potential to heal without surgical intervention.

What makes things interesting is the preferred recommendation for the management of labral tears for athletes. Non-surgical treatment is the primary recommendation, but if symptoms persist past four weeks, an athlete should consider surgical intervention. The labrum serves an important role to the function and integrity of other structures within the hip. Playing with a non-optimally healed labrum can result in other injuries that could persist and linger.

The Bengals chose to bypass placing Chase on IR and they plan to monitor his progress and symptoms over the next couple of weeks with the hope that he could return to the field on the shorter end of their initial projection. Chase could return after four weeks, and the ideal situation is his return in absence of any symptoms. If he does labor through the remainder of the season on his injured hip, I would not be surprised if he underwent offseason surgery, as literature suggests the best outcomes for labral repairs are completed within a year from the time of the injury.

James Rodriguez PT, DPT contributed to this report

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