Odell Beckham should make complete recovery, LI orthopedic surgeon says
Giants wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. is tended to on the field after he suffered a broken ankle during the fourth quarter against the Chargers at MetLife Stadium on Sunday, Oct. 8, 2017. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
Odell Beckham Jr.’s season is over, but he should be able to return to full strength and speed next season, according to a prominent Long Island orthopedic surgeon.
Beckham suffered a broken bone in his left ankle, believed to be an isolated fibula fracture, during Sunday’s game against the Chargers and he will have surgery to repair it this week.
“That generally is not a big deal,” Dr. Craig Levitz, the chief of orthopedic surgery and sports medicine at South Nassau Communities Hospital, told Newsday on Monday. “A small plate and screws and he should be perfect and make it back 100 percent. That is the expected outcome.”
Levitz has not examined Beckham and provided his medical analysis based on media reports and from watching the injury occur on Sunday.
The only thing that would alter that positive prognosis, Levitz said, is if there is damage to the syndesmotic ligament in the ankle as well.
“The ligament injury is worse and heals, but you can lose ankle motion or push-off strength,” Levitz said, “and only a few degrees is the difference between a special athlete and an ordinary athlete.”
Beckham’s injury occurred in the same area where he suffered a high ankle sprain on Aug. 21. Levitz said that is not surprising, but insisted that the Giants doctors did nothing wrong in allowing Beckham to play.
“[The previous sprain] probably made him more prone to injury,” he said, “but I would have cleared him to play because the chances are so low. This was just a freak combination of forces.”
Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.
