M.D.: … pretty obvious what we’re going to spend the majority of the time talking about today. Big news coming out of Houston, Texas last night in regards to American football, the greatest sport in the history of sports. J.J. Watt is being reported that J.J. Watt re-injured his back, and Ross Villarreal just told us right before my voice came on air that it’s official now and correct me if I’m wrong, thank you he gives me the thumbs up, J.J. Watt has been placed on IR injured reserve.
Speaker 2: Yeah you know if you think about a non-quarterback getting injured that can totally derail a team season number one on that list to me would have to be J.J. Watt. All he did for defense, the things he did even on offense and in red zone. This is a huge blow for the Texans, but I gotta tell you I think the Texans gotta take a lot of responsibility for this. J.J. Watt injured his back, had surgery on July 21st, came back and played in the first game, which I mean I’m just saying from my own experience and I didn’t have back surgery, but I had to have all those epidural steroid shots, your back is a tricky thing. And I think he rushed himself back, I think the team had a duty to protect himself from himself and his doctors.
Speaker 2: And we’re going to have a doctor join us Dr. John Michels and in fact he’s joining us right now on the 790 IBEW hotline. John Michels is a former first round draft choice out of USC, played for the Packers and is a Super Bowl Champion. After bad knees ended his NFL career he went to medical school. He now works at the Interventional Spine and Pain Institute in Dallas. He is double board certified in diagnostic radiology and pain medicine. John been trying to get you in the trenches for a long time I’m glad you’re finally here.
John Michels: Hey thanks for having me on this morning guys.
M.D.: First of all just an overall great guy, I had a chance to meet him a couple times. He’s one of those guys after you meet him you kind of go look in the mirror and you start asking yourself, what are you doing with your life?
John Michels: I think you’re doing all right M.D. you’re doing all right.
Speaker 2: Now we’re both failures in life, I’m so horrible. Hey John you know J.J. Watt our all everything defensive end down here had back surgery and they called it a herniated disc. They said he had surgery for a herniated disc on July 21st. He started in the first game and I’m guessing right now but I think it was September 5th was the first game, somewhere around there. I thought because I had back problems caused my retirement that, that was too quick for him to come back. You’ve been on both sides of the equation, was that too quick to come back from the surgery if he had actually herniated disc surgery, and does the team have a duty to protect the player from himself?
John Michels: You know it’s tough to say whether it was too quick for him to come back from that injury, obviously he’s got trainers and medical doctors who are evaluating him consistently throughout the off season, and through his rehabilitation, and assessing whether or not he’s ready to play the game at the highest level. And both J.J. and those medical professionals felt like he was ready to go. His situation was complicated ’cause if you remember last year he played through those core muscle tears, he had five abdominal core muscle tears and I think that’s what precipitated the back injuries.
Speaker 2: Well that’s exactly what supports your back, right? Those core muscles.
John Michels: They are, and whenever I see a patient who has a herniated disc in their back, and we’re treating them, after we’re done with that treatment a big component of their physical therapy is you have to work on your core strength and get your core strong in order to protect your back from further injury. And so, the question is, had he fully recovered from that core muscle surgery that he had had and was his back really truly protected once he got back into the swing of full contact football?
Speaker 2: When your medical staff is evaluating a player and I know that they got team doctors, but I would not think that these team doctors are so called football specialist, is that taken into account that this is a guy that’s going to be running into 325 pound men on a weekly basis, 60 plays a game or 45 plays a game?
John Michels: These guys are very familiar with treating injuries related to the game of football and trying to get guys back into football condition so that they can play at the top levels of the game, so they’re taking all of that into account realizing the type of player that J.J. Watt is, that he is frequently double triple teamed on plays, and that he’s going to be hit from all sides and needs to have the strength and core stability in order to protect himself when taking on these offensive linemen and running backs who are hitting him down to down.
M.D.: Doc is it fair to even try to predict how he’s going to return from this by looking at other players who had similar injuries, or do you have to take it all case by case?
John Michels: It is all case by case. When you look at an injury like Adrian Peterson he blew out his knee several years ago, and the raffic comeback he had, and the 2000 yard season he had following the knee injury, who could have ever predicted that? That’s an anomaly in the game. Everybody heals differently, everybody’s injury is different, there is no exact same injury. They can sound the same, they can kind of look the same on paper but each person is a case to case basis. And as we know, J.J. Watt is a machine, he is going to work harder and rehabilitate harder, and prepare his body more than just about any other player in the game would because that’s just the way that he dedicates himself to playing this game. So, he is going to do all the things necessary to get back as soon as possible. Right now it’s looking like an eight week IR stent and then we’ll see. Is this a season ending thing or are we going to see him mid-season?
M.D.: He gives a lot of credit as he should for being that workout warrior and you just talked about how he’s going to train harder, workout harder than anybody or most anybody else in this situation, can that have a negative effect? Is there a situation where you have to emphasize rest when you try to come back from this injury?
John Michels: Well there is the component of work harder and work smarter, and yes like you said rest is such a key component. Making sure that you allow the tissues to recover and to heal from the workouts that you’re putting them through. And I think that J.J.’s going to be smart, realizing that look this is the second back injury in just a number of months, and he’s got to get his body back into the condition to play at the level that he demands of himself. J.J. wants to go down as the best defensive player to have ever played in the National Football League, and he’s not going to settle for less than 100%.
Speaker 2: We’re talking to Dr. John Michels, he’s a former first run draft choice out of USC to the Packers, a Super Bowl Champion, he also is a doctor. He works at the Interventional Spine and Pain Institute in Dallas and is double board certified in diagnostic radiology and pain medicine. Doc when you talk about J.J. and you talk about the IR and putting him in the eight weeks that would bring him back for about the 11th week of the season. He’s only 27 years old, my worry is again, and I know I’m not a doctor and I know you haven’t seen his medical files and so I’m just going to ask you to speculate, should he just take the year off and rest and get strong? Cause to me he’s coming into his prime years right now.
John Michels: He is, and I think a lot of it depends on where the Houston Texans are come week 11. If they are making a playoff push and J.J.’s presence will make a huge difference into whether or not they’re able to make it to the playoffs and possibly make a bid for that Super Bowl in Houston, that’s going to weigh heavily on his mind. Do I come back a little sooner than maybe I am ready to because I can help this team win? If the team is struggling, it looks like they’re out of the playoff race then perhaps that decision becomes a little bit easier for him to rest his body and prepare for next season.
M.D.: When you look at these injuries and you talk to some of these football players … you know obviously you played, and you went through some injuries, and now you know the science behind it all, did that give you a different vantage point compared to the other doctors who didn’t play but obviously they’re knowledgeable on the body, knowledgeable on these injuries? But knowing that you actually played and what you have to go through to get back on the field does that give you a different point that other doctors don’t see?
John Michels: It gives me a decided advantage. I’ve been the patient, I’ve been the guy rehabilitating from the injury trying to get back and play at that game, and you know we are all tough as nails, we all want to get back and play yesterday if we can. And I played with a guy Brett Favre who knew that injury could potentially cause someone else to take your job. In fact, Brett Favre’s 300 game starting streak happened because Don Majkowski got injured at quarterback and Brett got his opportunity. So that creeps in the back of the mind of everybody who plays that game, and so as a player and having been the patient trying to get back on the field I definitely take a different perspective of the understanding of what it’s going to take to get J.J. Watt back to perform.
Speaker 2: John could you explain for our listeners when they say that he re-injured his back against the Patriots that could be just a bulging disc instead of a herniated disc. Could you explain the difference for our fans so that they might know the difference between a bulging disc, and a herniated disc?
John Michels: The best way I can describe a disc in our back is its kind of like a jelly donut. There’s a fibrous outer portion and there’s a gelatinous inner portion to our discs. Now a disc bulge is where that fibrous outer portion get a little weak spot, and it pushes out, it just bulges outward a little bit, and it can push on the nerve roots that go down our legs, and can cause pain, and flare ups, and weakness of those muscles and nerves that go down the legs. A herniated disc is when that fibrous outer portion actually ruptures and that gelatinous inner portion starts to squirt out a little bit. And now you’re taking up even more space around those nerve roots, and that can cause significant weakness and nerve damage. So the difference between a disc bulge and a herniation’s pretty significant.
Speaker 2: So the best case scenario here is he doesn’t need surgery he just takes some kind of epidural steroid shot to try to reduce that swelling of that disc?
John Michels: That’s very commonly how we treat this is when I see a patient I see this every single day comes in with a disc bulge, again they have inflammation around those nerve roots, we do an epidural steroid injection sometimes a series of epidural steroid injections to calm that inflammation down, and to alleviate those symptoms. And then allow them to do rehabilitation of those core muscles like we spoke about before to get strong enough to go back and perform their daily duties. So best case scenario he’s able to do some conservative treatment like a couple epidural steroid injections to start to work on that core strength and stabilizing muscles to protect his spine and get back in eight weeks. Worse case scenario he’s going to have, to have surgery again.
M.D.: That is the voice of former NFL player current doctor, you don’t hear that too often, joining us on 790 IBEW hotline. Dr. Michels it was great catching up with you. Congrats on all your success and thanks for your knowledge this morning.
John Michels: Thank you guys for having me on today it was an absolute pleasure.
Speaker 2: Appreciate it John.
M.D.: Have a great day.
