Experts agree Detroit Lions' Aidan Hutchinson will make full recovery. When he returns is the question

The Detroit Lions finally broke the Dallas Cowboys' winning streak , but as fans now well know, during the game, defensive lineman Aidan Hutchinson broke his left leg, specifically both bones below the knee, and underwent surgery to put them back together.

How long Hutch will be out was a source of speculation among fans, sports writers and physicians.

Surgeons operated Sunday night on Hutchinson to repair a broken tibia and fibula at Baylor White Medical Center in Irving, Texas, the team said Monday morning. He is expected to return to Detroit this week and eventually make a full recovery.

"He's in good hands right now," Lions coach Dan Campbell said right after the game. "He's being taken care of. He'll stay back here. Obviously, he's going to be down for a little while. That's tough, man. It's hard to lose someone like him."

Detroitlions.com, the team’s official news source, described the injury as significant, and Monday morning, ESPN analyst and former NFL head coach Rex Ryan said that without Hutchinson, the team "might've lost the Super Bowl," adding, "that's how good a player" he is, calling him the "best defensive player in the league" and a "leader."

Hutchinson, on Sunday, sacked Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott and collided with teammate Alim McNeill, which, in the opinion of one expert, is what caused the break.

And one sports medicine doctor who studied game video described the injury as if Hutchinson were whacked in the shin with a bat and predicted that Hutchinson likely would have a metal rod in his leg to help hold and weld the broken fragments back together.

Professor David Fausone , in the physical therapy department at Oakland University's School of Health Sciences, told the Free Press he expects Hutchinson will be on crutches at first, and, as swelling and pain subside, doctors and therapists likely will get the player moving more.

They will work on range of motion and ultimately strengthening his leg, the physical therapist said.

"They didn't give details of the surgery," Fausone said. "But, in my experience, if the average person were to have that type of injury and undergo surgery and a rehab process, you'd probably be looking at approaching normal function in three to five months."

Less time, perhaps, for an athlete.

But, Fausone added, it's unlikely Hutchinson will be back for the playoffs.

When will Aidan Hutchinson return?

Sports writer Ian Rapoport , who focuses on the NFL, offered his opinion on X that Hutchinson’s injury is "obviously season-ending" but reported that it is not career-ending because the "early prognosis is that being ready for 2025 shouldn’t be an issue."

And for Lions fans, that's good news.

Hutchinson, a Heisman Trophy runner-up, was the second overall NFL draft pick in 2022, and is a threat to other teams' quarterbacks. Sunday, the Lions victory, 47-9, at AT&T Stadium in Texas, was Detroit's first win over Dallas since 2013 . The game also, it turns out, was one of the Cowboys' worst drubbings ever.

Hutchinson could be back on the sidelines soon, in one to two weeks with crutches, Dr. Christopher Cooke , an orthopedic surgeon at DMC Orthopedics and Sports Medicine, predicted. That also would be a boost to concerned fans.

And in four to six weeks, Hutchinson might not need crutches at all.

Cooke, who was on WJBK-TV (Fox 2) , said he has had patients with similar injuries who started jogging again as early as 10-12 weeks. But the doctor said he hasn’t had an athlete fully resume sports activities in less than four to five months.

Still, Cooke added: "You’re not going to find a better candidate" than Hutchinson to recover quickly.

Football, a contact sport, is associated with serious injuries, even with considerable protective gear, experts have said, partly because it is so physical with violent clashes with other players, movement at high speeds, and sudden, jarring direction changes that can cause bodies to fly into the air and twist about.

More: Detroit Lions put clinic on Dallas Cowboys but Aidan Hutchinson injury mars 47-9 beatdown

Common injuries, Chicago-area orthopedic surgeon Benjamin Domb noted in his online blog, range from muscle sprains and tears to bone fractures to head and neck injuries.

In 1991, Detroit Lions player Mike Utley suffered a game injury that resulted in paralysis.

In the fourth quarter against the Rams, the offensive lineman was blocking when he hurt his sixth and seventh cervical vertebrae and lost movement from the chest down.

And last year, Buffalo Bills’ Damar Hamlin collapsed on the field during a game in what has been described as a sudden cardiac arrest. The game was suspended as many watched in shock. Hamlin, however, was able to recover and eventually return to playing football.

How bad is Aidan Hutchinson's injury?

As for Hutchinson, he was carted off the field in the third quarter.

His leg was put in an air cast, and he then underwent surgery in Dallas.

Dr. Brian Sutterer , a sports medicine specialist at Southeast Health in Missouri who hosts a YouTube channel, offered some of his thoughts on the injury in a video based on his medical expertise and what he saw during game broadcast clips.

In Sutterer’s observation, it looks like the defensive lineman was swung around, and contact with a teammate’s leg led to the injury. Momentum, combined with intense physical force, caused the bone — and probably both leg bones — to fracture.

In the area of the leg that was hit, the doctor said, there was no muscle to cushion the blow. He described what happened on the field as "just like taking a metal bat, and swinging and hitting directly in the shin, ultimately leading to the break."

Sutterer said how the injury is treated will likely depend, in part, on whether the fracture went through the skin. Infection could be a concern. It also is likely, the doctor said, that a rod will be inserted in the Hutchinson’s leg to hold the broken pieces together.

The physician said he expects the injury to be a season-ending injury, but if all goes well, Hutchinson could be back next year, and the injury should not affect the rest of his football career. And, he said, while a broken bone can be mentally challenging for a player, it can be easier to fix, medically.

The cliché is that adversity makes athletes stronger.

A few years ago, Hutchinson’s father, an emergency medicine physician who was an All-American defensive tackle at the University of Michigan, offered some thoughts on how the sport he played for years had helped him.

Chris Hutchinson initially signed with the Cleveland Browns, but after developing complications from a tetanus shot during rookie camp, ended up going to med school instead. In a U-M article about his work on the front lines saving lives, he shared an interesting insight.

He said that being in "uncomfortable situations" on the gridiron helped prepare him for other challenges later.

Contact Frank Witsil: 313-222-5022 or fwitsil@freepress.com.

The headline and story were updated with new information.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Experts agree Detroit Lions' Aidan Hutchinson will make full recovery. When he returns is the question