We learned yesterday that Jeff Saturday underwent an arthroscopic procedure to remove a "loose body" from his knee. Which knee was impacted was not specified. Not to make light of a potentially serious situation, but what the heck is a "loose body?" Was Jeff knee-deep (pun intended) in studing the playbook, and a page accidentally fell in? Did he swallow a piece of lobster shell and it was magnetically drawn there? Did Peyton spike the ball in his direction and it lodged itself in Jeff's knee? Let's look at our next patient...
Jeff Saturday, C
Date of Injury: unknown, but surgery took place on August 10, 2010
Nature of Injury: "loose body" in the knee
Typical Rehab Process/Duration: depends entirely on the nature and severity of the injury, but rehab is expected to begin immediately, probably with passive motion exercises (they'll put his leg in a machine that bends it back and forth for him to keep the muscles loose and ligaments flexible)
A quick review of Saturday's injury history reveals that a knee injury (an MCL tear) last kept him out of practice in 2008. That was also a pre-season injury, and kept him out of the first two games of 2008... dark, dark days because Manning was also returning from knee problems.
So where does that put us? Well we can hope that the "loose body" is as simple as a piece of meniscus that needed to be clipped off. Having a bit of personal experience with that type of surgery, I would be confident that Saturday can be back on the field in a matter of a couple of weeks.
If the loose body is more insidious, like a bone chip, the prognosis is a little murkier. After all, the chip would have had to come from somewhere, and the source probably makes a big difference. Given Jeff's previous speedy return, and blind hope, I'm going to take a positive view on this one. I suspect he will be held out of the rest of training camp and all of the pre-season games, but that he'll be ready to go for Week 1.
Dr. Blue's Prognosis - Likelihood of Game 1 Appearance: High