A year after injuries to key players plagued the Atlanta Falcons, the team with high aspirations suffered a devastating blow and the season has not even started yet.
Linebacker Sean Weatherspoon, the Falcons top defender and team leader on that side of the ball, sustained a ruptured Achilles tendon. And get this: It happened as he jogged with the club’s medical staff.
“We sent Sean to the doctor for some additional testing and evaluation and unfortunately the results showed that he ruptured his Achilles tendon,” coach Mike Smith said on the Falcons’ website. ” Sean had been working extremely hard to get back on the field, but regrettably he will miss the entire 2014 season. He will have a procedure done in the near future and we expect him to make a full recovery.”
Weatherspoon appeared in just seven games last year, due to foot and knee injuries. Now Weatherspoon, who had 210 tackles combined in 2011 and 2012, will miss the entire 2014 season. We’ve seen other players make unbelievable recoveries from Achilles injuries. Baltimore’s Terrell Suggs returned in a little more than five months, and San Francisco’s Michael Crabtree made it back in a little more than six months last season.
The initial prognosis for Weatherspoon, however, is that he is out for the season.
That leaves a pretty big hole for the Falcons, who cannot afford to have any holes.
