When Chris Weidman suffered a gruesome broken leg back in 2021, he had no idea the amount of time, surgeries and rehabilitation that it would take to get back in the cage again.
Over two years and 14 surgeries later, the New York native finally returned to action but he wouldn’t wish what he went through on anybody else. While thankfully it’s not exactly a common occurrence, Weidman witnessed Detroit Lions star defensive end Aidan Hutchinson suffer through almost exact same injury when his leg snapped after colliding with a teammate as he sacked Dallas Cowboys’ quarterback Dak Prescott.
Hutchinson ultimately broke the fibula and tibia, which required him to undergo emergency surgery just hours after the game ended. Initially, the former Michigan Wolverine was expected to be out of action for at least six to eight months but there was some optimism that perhaps he could return even sooner if the Lions made the Super Bowl, which takes place on Feb. 9.
That equals out to four months between the injury and playing football again.
While he can’t predict how quickly Hutchinson will recover, Weidman knows from his own experience — and 14 total surgeries on his leg — that coming back from something so traumatic takes time.
“That’s not happening,” Weidman told MMA Fighting about Hutchinson playing again this season. “I really hope the best for him. I don’t know the full extent of his injuries. I don’t know exactly what happened. I saw the videos but I haven’t seen the x-rays. I don’t know what they did surgery wise.
“I can tell you with me, it was the hardest thing I’ve been through in my life by far. I mean it took me over two years to come back. I fought in April 2021 and I think I fought [August] 2023. Around that same time but it’s not fun.”
Based on reports, Hutchinson’s optimistic timeline to recover was based on a few key factors.
The fracture itself was a clean break with no ligament or nerve damage done. Hutchinson was also able to get the surgery to repair the damage done almost immediately after the injury happened because he was close to Baylor University Medical Center, which is a Level 1 trauma center, where Dr. Alan Jones resides.
Jones is widely regarded as one of the top experts in tibia and fibula injuries and repairs.
Weidman didn’t know the extent of the injuries that Hutchinson suffered so he couldn’t speculate when comparing potential recovery times, especially after he suffered through a compound fracture when his leg broke in a fight.
“Every injury’s definitely different,” Weidman said. “It’s a traumatic injury so everyone is going to be a little bit different. Some people could possibly come back faster. Did it go through the muscle? Did it come out of the skin? Did it hit nerves? Did they fix the fibula as well as fix the tibia?
“I’m sure they put a pin through the tibia if he broke that but a lot of times they don’t put the plates on the fibula. So it just kind of depends on what he ended up doing.”
There’s no telling if Hutchinson would actually attempt to play again this season and that’s obviously also depending on how far the Lions potentially go in the playoffs.
Right now, Detroit sits at 8-1 overall with a great chance to possibly land the No. 1 seed in the NFC, which would give them home field advantage throughout the playoffs.
If the Lions can make it all the way to the Super Bowl, perhaps Hutchinson really could become a medical marvel and play again in the biggest game of the season but Weidman knows the journey there is going to be incredibly difficult.
Much like fighting, football is a violent, contact sport and it’s a lot to ask of the human body to go through a traumatic injury and then bounce back in such quick fashion.
If anything, Weidman hopes that perhaps Hutchinson could get a little extra help in his recovery and then perhaps playing in the Super Bowl might actually be possible.
“It’s very physical,” Weidman said. “You’ve got to explode off of it. I hope he’s able to come back fast. I tried my ass off to come back as fast as possible.
“I would say if he can get on some steroids and get on some performance enhancers and they let him do that, I think that’s smart and I think that should be allowed. That maybe would help being able to come back faster. But doing it all natural, it’s not easy.”
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