Pittsburgh Steelers NT Casey Hampton confirms to undergo for ACL injury on his knee – NFL News
Pittsburgh Steelers nose tackle, Casey Hampton, has contradicted earlier reports to confirm that he will undergo a surgery for his anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury on his left knee.
Hampton suffered the injury in Steelers’ wild-card game against the Denver Broncos and his team earlier said that the player would not need a surgery.
According to the latest reports, the player said that he needed a surgery on his left knee and he will have the operation done on Friday, January 27, 2012.
The player further confirmed that his injury was ACL and therefore it would require a surgery to rectify it.
This is for the second time that the player will have a surgery on his left knee for the same injury that he has suffered during his career at Steelers. He remains without being affected much by it and apparently keen to continuing playing.
He said that he wanted to comeback to Steelers next season and his health and fitness will determine his chances and a possible future course for him and his team.
Hampton is one of the veterans in the team, who could possibly come under the hammer, in the team’s efforts to reduce overspending under the head of players’ salaries.
The Pittsburgh Steelers had earlier been reported to be spending about $25 million above the salary cap and the management was looking for ways to cut the cost to keep within their salary budget of around $120 million.
The only option in front of them is to part ways with some of the highly paid veterans, who are nearing end of their career, or atleast seek to renegotiate the terms of their contracts to create a room for savings.
Steelers had discussed the issue at the meeting held in the post-regular-season, but it's not emerged what's been decided about the future of players like Hampton as yet.
With a possibility of review of their contracts many of the players are to lose some money under the new terms.
Hampton is due to earn $4.8 million next season. His cap value is more than $8 million.
Steelers’ coach, Mike Tomlin, has earlier defended the management decision of looking at the possibilities and avenues to cut spending. He said all the measures would be taken in the need of the team and none of the players would be made a specific target.
The Pittsburgh Steelers ended the 2011 National Football League (NFL) regular season atop the American Football Conference (AFC) North division.
In the end, they lost the opportunity for the divisional title due to loss of their both games to the Baltimore Ravens in the regular season.
Their 2011 run was finally ended with the loss of their wild-card game against Denver Broncos.
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