Rehab from ACL: Pittsburgh Steelers’ Rashard Mendenhall wary of giving timeline for return – NFL News
Pittsburgh Steelers’ injured running back Rashard Mendenhall says his recovery from an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is on track but remains wary of speculating an exact timeline of his return to action.
It has been almost seven months to the injury and the player yet faces the sidelines. He nevertheless is hopeful of his comeback this season.
The Steelers have also confirmed his rehab to be in line with the schedule but, just like the player, are sceptical about giving a timetable for his return.
During his recent remarks, the player admitted that at present there is no timeline for him to come back to the side. His answer in this regard was short but straight one: “No, not at all.”
He added:
"It's hard to say, as far as percentage or how much I'm pushing things, but everything that we've done so far has been successful. So just taking steps as we go along."
A pair of other Steelers' players has suffered the same injury. They are nose tackle Casey Hampton and offensive tackle Max Starks, but even they admit that Mendenhall’s injury is different and rather serious one.
Hampton said:
"He has to cut harder and have more confidence in his knee before he comes back."
Mendenhall’s presence in the squad is crucial given the team has transformed the offence strategy under the new offensive coordinator Todd Haley.
The RB has not taken part in any training activity during the offseason programme, and can have some difficulties in adapting to the changed offensive scheme.
Still the main and important aspect is his ability to recover fully this season. For this the recovery process has to continue without any setback. It is unfortunate that the rehab from injuries like ACL have many setbacks associated to them. This is one
of the reasons that the stakeholders refrain from giving an exact timeline for the recovery and return to fitness.
The start of the next regular season is only a month away and the RB’s absence from the squad can have a negative outfall on the Steelers’ overall performance. Both the team and the player himself are hopeful of avoiding that possibility.
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