Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski, who has broken his left forearm twice since last November and has had three surgeries on it during that span, has an infection in the arm and may need a fourth procedure, casting his Week 1 availability in doubt, according to reports.
Gronkowski, who broke the forearm in November and missed several weeks before returning in January and re-breaking it, had an infection following the second procedure, which was the insertion of a metal plate to set the bone. After undergoing a six-week antibiotic program, the infection has not gone away, and his doctors fear that a fourth operation to clean out the wound is necessary.
Doctors will have to re-enter his arm and install a new plate, but if the tissue surrounding it is infected, they will need to place him on another antibiotic program and hold off on removing the plate. The antibiotic program would last for another six weeks, while his rehab from the actual arm surgery is expected to take ten weeks.
On the "Mike and Mike" ESPN radio show, Gronkowski didn't let on about his infection. He told the hosts Mike Greenberg and Mike Golic, "The arm is feeling way better than it was during the playoffs, and in the regular season when I broke it."
Another doctor, who has not treated Gronkowski, painted a potentially bleak picture concerning Gronkowski's recovery.
"If you have issues with reinfection of the bone and the plate, there can be long-term consequences that the bone will not heal. It may need significant time to heal. That means sometimes that they have to take the plate out, wash the wound out and let all of the infection completely resolve before they go back in and do a repair. Sometimes, you can get a chronic non-union, or non-healing, of the bone."
The Patriots have not commented on the reported complications, and do not expect to according to The Boston Herald. Gronkowski set the NFL record for touchdowns in a season by a tight end with 17 in 2011.
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