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Bengals fourth-round pick Erick All explains why his injury history contains a major misconception

Originally posted on A to Z Sports | By John Sheeran | Last updated 5/13/24

Had tight end Erick All never missed time with injury in college, he likely would've been drafted long before the Cincinnati Bengals selected him. Back-to-back season ending injuries dropped All to the fourth round for the Bengals to swoop him off the board.

All's most recent recovery is from ACL surgery he underwent in November of 2023, but the spinal surgery he underwent in 2022 has gotten most of the attention. It's not too common for college players to undergo that kind of operation, so it stuck out like a sore thumb in his profile.

The 23-year old draft pick ended up clearing the air after rookie minicamp this past week.

All was unable to participate in Friday's minicamp session as he's just six months out from knee surgery. He told media members that this injury has been much harder to recover from compared to his spinal injury.

"Way harder," All said. "My back was killing me and then I went into surgery, woke up from surgery and felt completely normal. So like going into like workouts and rehab, I felt fine. But now, you know, there's days where my knee hurts, and there's days when my leg is stiff because I had like eight [top] 30 visits.

"So traveling and being on a plane and things like that, like non-stop, it kind of felt like weird some days."

While recoveries from torn ACLs are pretty common, the process of getting there isn't easy. All is expected to be cleared for training camp in late July, but he still has a couple months to go before that milestone.

All's knee injury is what kept him out of participating in any pre-draft activities. The spinal injury became the more interesting conversation with the help of a past Instagram post from All. The caption of the photo written by All featured the phrase "life-changing surgery."

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Erick All Jr. (@83eall)

All's choice of words made it seem like the surgery was more drastic than it actually was. How the operation impacted All for the better was more groundbreaking than the operation itself.

"Yeah I think because of my post when I posted I said, what did I say? Like a 'life changing surgery?' It's because it was life changing for me," All revealed. "I've never had a back injury before, and you know, just having that back pain. It was just scary, like I couldn't do anything. So it was tough. It was tough for me and that was like my real first injury ever. That kind of put me in a dark place at the time. But it was like literally I woke up from the surgery ... and it's like 'oh it's fine.'

"And I was good and I was able to do everything. I could sit down and I had a cold at the time so I could wake up like when I have a big sneeze, my back is not killing me and it was just a life-changing surgery."

Yep. All's back pain went away and he felt fine soon after. He would still miss the remainder of the 2022 season, but his recovery back to the field was a lot simpler than the path he's on right now.

While the present isn't ideal, All's future is definitely positive for the Bengals if his spine injury isn't anything to worry about. Should All's current recovery end positively, he will be set up to contribute immediately without anything to hold him back.

This article first appeared on A to Z Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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