Doctor of physical therapy explains Cam Skattebo’s gruesome ankle injury and recovery outlook

Cam Skattebo s promising start to his rookie season was cut short on Sunday after he suffered a gruesome injury in the New York Giants loss to the Philadelphia Eagles that warranted no replays being shown The running back suffered ligament tears while dislocating his ankle which resulted in a compound wound after getting tackled by Zach Baun on Sunday Skattebo had surgery in Philadelphia just hours after the injury which was necessary because of the open wound Medical expert of Physical Therapy Tom Christ mentioned in an interview with Fox News Digital CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON FOXNEWS COM It s infection control We kind of thought this from watching the injury both the tibia and fibula snapped And what happens when they snap is sometimes the bone can protrude through the skin That was definitely a concern if you saw the play But it was an open fracture meaning the skin has been compromised Now any bacteria from his sock the field wherever can easily get into the skin And since the bone is fractured it could get into the bone itself Christ explained In essence it was to avoid an Alex Smith situation in which his life was in danger after getting sepsis due to infections from his compound injury in If he does develop a bad infection that s going to make things really really really complicated and bad Christ whose Fantasy Injury Squad takes deep dives football injuries and their effects on fantasy football added Head coach Brian Daboll explained Skattebo has a long road ahead and Christ concurred even assuming an infection is avoided CLEVELAND RADIO HOST DESPERATELY PLEADS FOR BROWNS TO START SHEDEUR SANDERS 'JUST PUT HIM OUT THERE' Pretty early on for the first six weeks he s presumably not weight-bearing at all So right there you re going to get a lot of weakness progressing Atrophy sets in real fast Christ stated So Skattebo will spend several weeks strengthening the rest of his leg before even putting weight on his right foot the medical practitioner declared Christ added Skattebo possibly won't be cleared for jogging or weightlifting until roughly four months out and won't have full range of motion for about three However if majority of of it is back within weeks he's set up for a really good rehab Skattebo does benefit from his playstyle which isn't exactly juking out defenders but rather a more old-school ground-and-pound attack He s not a speed guy It s not like he s Jahmyr Gibbs De Von Achane He s a bruiser he s absolutely fearless potentially psycho he uses his blockers really well he has great vision and he s a tremendous pass-catcher Those are all things that will be less of a challenge to regain from this type of injury If he were Gibbs or Achane he may never get the top-top speed back If all goes to plan despite the horrifying nature of the injury the Arizona State alum could return to his impressive thunderous form according to Christ Skattebo's age just will play a huge factor in his comeback I cannot emphasize enough how critical his age is here I know this is going to sound crazy here but Chris Godwin being when his injury happened that five-year gap of to is huge with these types of rehabs The younger you are the more efficient your body is at healing It just helps everything man It helps so much I do think he can get back to a high level of play Follow Fox News Digital s sports coverage on X and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter