This football injury looks brutal—and according to an orthopedic surgeon, it is.
Dr. Antonio Webb recently took to YouTube to react to Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott’s ankle injury, giving fans some insight into the gruesome dislocation. Prescott dislocated his ankle in the third quarter of a Cowboys vs. New York Giants game on Sunday when he was tackled by Giants defensive back Logan Ryan. The impact caused Prescott to dislocate and fracture his ankle, emerging from the tackle with his foot bent the wrong way. As an orthopedic specialist, Dr. Webb calls it a “pretty serious ankle injury.”
According to ESPN, the Cowboys announced Prescott “suffered a compound fracture and dislocation of his right ankle, which means the bone penetrated his skin as part of the injury.” Prescott reportedly underwent surgery on the ankle Sunday evening, with ESPN suggesting his season is likely over.
“An ankle dislocation is where your tibia and your talus separate,” Dr. Webb says. “When that happens, it can cause a lot of pain. You can injure structures that are around the ankle joint, such as nerves and arteries.”
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Doctors often classify ankle dislocations based on the placement of the foot, with Dr. Webb explaining Prescott’s injury is a trimalleolar ankle fracture. Basically that’s a nasty three-part ankle fracture involving the “medial malleolus, the posterior aspect of the tibia, and the lateral malleolus.” This type of injury is so serious it’s usually seen in car accidents and roof falls — and sports-related mishaps.
“It seems like all the force from the defensive player landed on Dak Prescott’s leg, and his ankle [dislocated],” Dr. Webb explains.
While Dr. Webb says he usually tries to get X-rays before popping an ankle back into place, he says at a sporting event, it’s often done on the field to treat the injury as soon as possible. He hypothesizes this was done in Prescott’s case, citing the air cast he was wearing when taken off the field.
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“After we get the ankle into a good position, usually patients feel better,” Dr. Webb says. “That ankle joint is dislocated or out of place, it puts everything else on stretch — your ligaments, your nerves, you have blood vessels that run on the inside of the ankle. When patient’s have their ankles reduced, this can be very pain relieving for a lot of patients.”
But that’s just the beginning of a long road to recovery. Dr. Webb explains ankle dislocations can be “unstable,” requiring bracing with splints to properly heal. After bracing, then a decision is made on if the patient needs surgery. In Prescott’s case, he underwent surgery immediately.
“Most ankle dislocations will require some form of surgery just because the ankle is unstable. You tore the ligaments that otherwise keeps the ankle in an appropriate position,” Dr. Webb says. “We need to restore the ankle joint, and we do this in surgery with plates and a combination of screws.”
He says ankle dislocation patients often have surgery, go back into a splint, and usually require at least six weeks of not placing any weight on the ankle. If there is a fracture of the tibia, as in Prescott’s case, then usually an additional six weeks of healing is required.
While the news is bleak for Prescott’s season, both ESPN and Dr. Webb don’t see this as a career-ending injury. In fact, you don’t have to look far to find another player who recently came back from a much worse circumstance.
“It’s very promising to see people like Alex Smith, who is the quarterback for the [Washington Football Team] who had a really gruesome ankle injury that got infected, [come back on Sunday] after almost 693 days,” Dr. Webb says.
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