Jalen Hurts is likely to miss the rest of the NFL season after an ultrasound revealed blood clots in his lungs. Thankfully, he’s now restricted from playing for the immediate future, meaning he won’t be risking serious complications – or even his life – as he did when he played in the Philadelphia Eagles’ Week 5 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars in London. The quarterback complained to the Eagles’ medical staff of calf pain on 8 October, according to ESPN.
The Eagles say Hurts flew to London with the rest of the team and, out of an “abundance of caution”, was given an ultrasound. The test found a superficial clot in his calf. Doing an ultrasound before the flight would’ve been the most prudent thing.
The same for making him inactive after the clot was found. But instead, he played in the game on 11 October, as the medical staff and doctors in London agreed “that activity and mobility were important”. Hurts also practiced all last week before a follow-up ultrasound also found clots in his lungs.
Some have celebrated Hurts’s performance against the Jaguars as a feat of virility; to many it looks more like putting a player in real danger. His blood clots could have caused serious health issues during the flights or game. (One sports medicine doctor told NJ.com that Hurts was “a walking risk”.) If his condition was dire enough that doctors reportedly told him in the early hours of Sunday morning not to sleep before the Jaguars game, he shouldn’t have been playing. Hurts’s agent, Nicole Lynn, clarified that he did get some sleep before facing the Jaguars, but the question remains: was the NFL’s London showcase so important that it was worth risking Hurts’s life?
Asked about his decision to play Hurts, Eagles coach Nick Sirianni told reporters that he relies on advice from medical staff. I lean on our medical experts in every situation,” he said. It’s not just me that has major care for our players.
It’s them as well.” The Super Bowl LIX MVP is on blood thinners and hopefully on the road to healing, expected to make a full recovery. But his ordeal is the latest example of how football players are put in danger season after season. One piece of research from 2017 found that a college player took hits to his head during a single game that were equivalent to multiple car crashes.
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