Over a month on from suffering a season-ending knee injury Vikings tight end T.J Hockenson still has yet to undergo surgery according to KSTP's Darren Wolfson.
"Here's some doom and gloom, something to think about," Wolfson said Thursday on SKOR North's Mackey & Judd Show.
"I checked this week on T.J. Hockenson. So we always knew it would be a few weeks (for surgery), multiple knee ligaments torn. I texted one person who said when I asked, 'Hey did he undergo surgery yet?' – we always knew it would be mid- to late-January, maybe even into early February – this one person said, 'Not to my knowledge.'"
Hockenson tore his ACL and MCL in the Vikings' Week 16 loss to Detroit. Lions safety Kerby Joseph hit Hockenson low on the play that ended the Vikings tight end's season. Three weeks later Joseph ended Rams tight end Tyler Higbee's season with a low hit that caused the same injury.
According to Twin Cities Orthopedics, typical recovery time after a knee surgery is over six months. One study by the National Institute of Health calculated that typical recovery times for NFL players who suffered an ACL & MCL tear to be just over 10 months. Former Vikings running back Adrian Peterson famously tore both his ACL and MCL late December of 2011 and returned by the opening week of the 2012 season but that quick of a timeline is still mostly unheard of.
Rams head coach Sean McVay said that Higbee would most likely start the 2024 season on the PUP list due to the timing of the injury.
"I just don't know how he's back by Week 1," Wolfson said. "Is he even back in September?"
More must-reads: