I am fairly certain the exact injury that Ben has.
It's not a cracked rib, it's not a broken rib. he was already wearing a flak, and hurt himself hitting the ground, and not that hard at that, so my only logical conclusion is:
He's playing with an intercostal muscle strain. For those of you that haven't heard of this injury, it's when you get a muscle pull between your ribs. Super painful. Just got one this season from hitting the water HARD, and I missed 4 weeks of hockey because of it. It hurts to breathe, it hurts to laugh/cough/sneeze, let alone throw a football and take hits.
He went to the locker room because he got a shot to that muscle. You don't shoot up a cracked bone, and he already had a flak jacket on, so no need to tape the ribs. When he returned, you saw him stretching. If you have a cracked rib, you don't move that way. He was working out the muscle strain, and trying to get the treatment to spread and relieve all of his pain in his throwing motion.
He was not ready to play when he came back out on the field. If he was ready, he would have been right next to Tomlin, not in the back stretching out and working through the pain. I will never question putting an injured player back on the field. Especially when that player is your franchise.
Now we have one solid truth for the rest of the season. Ben has an injury to his rib muscle tissue, and will have to play hurt and on shots the rest of the year. That is the reality of it.
It's not a cracked rib, it's not a broken rib. he was already wearing a flak, and hurt himself hitting the ground, and not that hard at that, so my only logical conclusion is:
He's playing with an intercostal muscle strain. For those of you that haven't heard of this injury, it's when you get a muscle pull between your ribs. Super painful. Just got one this season from hitting the water HARD, and I missed 4 weeks of hockey because of it. It hurts to breathe, it hurts to laugh/cough/sneeze, let alone throw a football and take hits.
He went to the locker room because he got a shot to that muscle. You don't shoot up a cracked bone, and he already had a flak jacket on, so no need to tape the ribs. When he returned, you saw him stretching. If you have a cracked rib, you don't move that way. He was working out the muscle strain, and trying to get the treatment to spread and relieve all of his pain in his throwing motion.
He was not ready to play when he came back out on the field. If he was ready, he would have been right next to Tomlin, not in the back stretching out and working through the pain. I will never question putting an injured player back on the field. Especially when that player is your franchise.
Now we have one solid truth for the rest of the season. Ben has an injury to his rib muscle tissue, and will have to play hurt and on shots the rest of the year. That is the reality of it.
