REPORT: Eric Berry has a Haglund’s deformity on his heel
New information on Berry’s sore heel injury emerged on Saturday.
By Pete Sweeney Sep 29, 2018, 1:15pm CDT
Eric Berry has not practiced or played for the Kansas City Chiefs since August 11 in St. Joseph, Missouri, because of what the team has described as a “sore heel.”
The last we heard from the Chiefs athletic training staff was in early September, when head athletic trainer Rick Burkholder described the injury as “literally day to day.”
More information on Berry’s injury emerged Saturday morning, via NFL Network’s Mike Garafolo:
Mike Garafolo: “My understanding, and I’ve spoken to people familiar with his injury situation. He’s got what’s called a Haglund’s deformity in that Achilles. That’s a bone spur that basically digs into the Achilles. Shaun O’ Hara, our colleague at NFL Network, he had it. I spoke to him this week. He said it is extremely painful. He actually used a more colorful word that I won’t use here. It’s just something that continues to irritate the area. Some guys have been able to play with it—you get a shoe here or there, you can adjust … but that’s what’s going on. It’s going to be a pain management thing. It’s not like this thing will tear the Achilles necessarily. A lot of these cases don’t result in a tear, but that’s why with Berry right now, he has not played, and they’ve been doing OK. That’s going to allow them a little bit more patience with Berry, but it is extremely painful.”
This provides a little more clarity than Berry’s injury simply being a “sore heel,” which is good, but what’s bad is there still seems to be no timetable. Remember, Berry missed nearly the entirety of the 2017 season due to a ruptured Achilles on the other leg.
Chiefs head coach Andy Reid was mum on the injury when asked about it Saturday afternoon after the Chiefs’ final practice of the week.
Berry is officially ruled doubtful heading into the Monday night game against the Denver Broncos.
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Here are the notes from our in-house medical expert, Aaron Borgmann:
A lot of talk today regarding something known as a Haglund’s deformity. It was reported by a media source that the player in question suffers from this condition. This discussion is not to confirm or deny that possibility, as I can only explain the available information that we have been given. To be clear, the team has not confirmed this diagnosis and I have no advance knowledge of the player’s current condition.
The simple explanation here that it is indeed a bone spur on the backside of someone’s heel. This is frequently known as a “pump bump” from the occurrence that it is often seen in women’s fashion from the shoes that they wear. However, incidence in football players is also common, sometimes referred to as “retrocalcaneal bursitis” as well.
The bone spur irritates the bursa (fluid-filled sac) that sits between the bone and the tendon or even the tendon itself directly. This can cause a great deal of inflammation and discomfort with any sort of dynamic ankle/foot movement, worse with pressure on the spot itself.
Having one in and of itself it not uncommon, but the degree to which it bothers someone is the issue. Depending upon demands of movement, these can range from debilitating to just a nuisance. Obviously, in football players, the degree of inflammation is what dictates the level of function.
These are diagnosed both visually and radiographically and it is a situation where if you see it and player complains of certain symptoms (pain with movement in that exact spot, swelling, redness) then you can be pretty sure that is what it is.
Treatment focuses on reduction of inflammation obviously directly over the spot. This can be done both topically and through systemic medication. Soft tissue lengthening in both the calf and bottom of the foot is also done to alleviate the issue from both sides – this is due to the fact that both the calf and plantar fascia connect to the calcaneus (heel bone) on either side.
Not to be forgotten is footwear modification and adjustment. Very rigid shoes can cause this irritation, and in some athletes, I would even cut the shoe in the heel to allow room for the bump. Other options include specialized padding and friction reduction methods. Heel lifts have been shown to be helpful in some.
For this condition, non-surgical intervention is preferred to reduce the inflammation as opposed to surgical due to the immobilization period.
If the inflammation can be reduced and the function level high, many players learned to adapt their daily routines to accommodate. They may have to put in a bit more time in order to get ready due to the condition’s demands but can nonetheless get by and still perform at a high level. [Reply]
Let's just assume the Chiefs get Berry back for the playoffs.
Do they really think it's a good idea to trot out a player who's supposedly trying to manage and suffer through severe foot pain, a player who hasn't played football in roughly 2 seasons, and use the most important game of the year to knock off 2yrs worth of rust?
IMO that sounds like a recipe for disaster that could end up costing the entire team. [Reply]
Originally Posted by CoMoChief:
Let's just assume the Chiefs get Berry back for the playoffs.
Do they really think it's a good idea to trot out a player who's supposedly trying to manage and suffer through severe foot pain, a player who hasn't played football in roughly 2 seasons, and use the most important game of the year to knock off 2yrs worth of rust?
IMO that sounds like a recipe for disaster that could end up costing the entire team.
If he plays, you really think the very first game he plays will be the playoff game? Posted via Mobile Device [Reply]
Originally Posted by RunKC:
And what exactly is it that you want to hear from him that we don’t already know?
Anything, I would just like to hear him say something, to make sure the heel issue, doesn't have connecting nerve damage that has affected his vocal chords. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Sweet Daddy Hate:
I'll take exception to this considering that it is the OWNERS who are killing this game in the name of safety and a lust for 40+ points a game so that people with the attention span of lard can feel "engaged" on game day.
In the case of Berry most owners wouldn't, and with damned good reason; IT'S A MAJOR LIABILITY. Clark isn't most owners. He did the right thing on the first go-around and got ****ed on the second.
And you know, if it was clear that negotiations were going to fail and that both sides simply weren't going to reach an accord, he could have come out himself or had Dorsey come out, spell out the situation( reiterating what the Chiefs had done for Berry in the past as well as highlighting other instances where the Chiefs organization had gone above and beyond for its players when necessary ), and explaining that in THIS case, there were extenuating circumstances that simply weren't going to be overcome, and that the Chiefs felt it was necessary to do what had to be done to protect the team in the long run.
Would we have hated it at the time? Sure. Would we all be sucking on Dorsey's dick almost two years down the road? SLURP-SLURP-SLURP! Yes.
( And we'd STILL have our Razzle-Dazzle QB )
I'll be the first to admit that I know nothing in regards to how pro football players train for cardio, but I can attest that my OWN cardio training involves a shit-ton of feet and legs, and would not be possible with an irritating bone-spur trying to claw its way through my flesh?...
Does Berry jog on his hands? Perform wind-sprints with his fists?
Originally Posted by Sweet Daddy Hate:
The undertone of the "not-so secret dreamers" is the most annoying ****ing thing about this whole fiasco. These fools can't accept any criticism of the player, the organization, or the complete ****ing train wreck of this situation because they're furiously whacking it to their Eric Berry fatheads, waiting for this now inconsequential player to pull some kind of "Rudy-esque" hero-moment out of his ass.
It all started with, "they're saving him for later in the season". Then it went to the little side-spurt of dumbassed hope, "they need him for the Rams game"( with it's once shitty field and Berry's foot injury! :-) ).
And then of course on to scale Mount Dumbass to it's HIGHEST HEIGHTS:
"They're saving him for the playoffs"!
So what's next? Are they saving him to sweep up the confetti at the ****ing Super Bowl?
And I'm tired of reading about a non-existent "PR nightmare" from these dumbasses, too. Here's the long and short of it; Berry was the last rookie to sign a huge contract before the league and the NFLPA restructured. Furthermore, when it was discovered that he had cancer, the Chiefs payed him a LOT of money that they were not bound in any way, shape, or form to pay in the name of good relations, character, and yes; a policy of FAMILY that sets the Chiefs apart from a great many other franchises.
THERE WAS NO "PR NIGHTMARE". Just a shady one who sucks the penis of an agent, an owner with an ultimately WEAK spine, a GM looking out for his team in the most reasonable manner possible, and a player with a Superman-complex and little gratitude for what had been shown him already.
So if you jackoffs wanna' continue to cheer for this prick in the face of all we now know just for the sake of some insipid "Football Life"-moment that ain't gonna' ****in' happen, be my guest. I'll direct my cheers to the guys who are covering for the ass of this 20-ton albatross, thank you.
Berry fucked us over every chance he got with his contract. He and he alone is the reason he hasn't made an attempt to play. He's a selfish asshole we need to get rid of.
We stood by him and paid him in full for a year for his treatments and then he held us for a kings ransom. We should all be done with him. [Reply]
Checked. Activated off PUP first week of November. There is some sort of precedent within the organization for this style of player management. Not saying it’s the same circumstance, but they did treat an older, fragile player with kid gloves once already.
Originally Posted by Brooklyn:
What week did Hali come back last year?
Checked. Activated off PUP first week of November. There is some sort of precedent within the organization for this style of player management. Not saying it’s the same circumstance, but they did treat an older, fragile player with kid gloves once already.
Originally Posted by Brooklyn:
What week did Hali come back last year?
Checked. Activated off PUP first week of November. There is some sort of precedent within the organization for this style of player management. Not saying it’s the same circumstance, but they did treat an older, fragile player with kid gloves once already.
Originally Posted by Brooklyn:
What week did Hali come back last year?
Checked. Activated off PUP first week of November. There is some sort of precedent within the organization for this style of player management. Not saying it’s the same circumstance, but they did treat an older, fragile player with kid gloves once already.
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1) Tamba Hali was terrible/ineffective when he did come back, so to use him as a supposed example of successfully holding out a player until the end of the season/playoffs is wrong.
2) Tamba Hali didn't miss all of the previous season of game action as Eric Berry has, so the duration of Berry's lack of game action is much longer. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Red Dawg:
Berry ****ed us over every chance he got with his contract. He and he alone is the reason he hasn't made an attempt to play. He's a selfish asshole we need to get rid of.
We stood by him and paid him in full for a year for his treatments and then he held us for a kings ransom. We should all be done with him.
None of us know this. You’re mad about something we don’t know. [Reply]
Originally Posted by KCChiefsFan88:
1) Tamba Hali was terrible/ineffective when he did come back, so to use him as a supposed example of successfully holding out a player until the end of the season/playoffs is wrong.
2) Tamba Hali didn't miss all of the previous season of game action as Eric Berry has, so the duration of Berry's lack of game action is much longer.
That wasn't what my example was pointing out (holding him out to make him effective later on). It was merely pointing out that the Chiefs FO might *think* that was what they are doing. Just because it failed with Hali, doesn't mean they might not try the same approach with another player. They Chiefs and Andy Reid are nothing if not willing to do the same thing over and over expecting different results. [Reply]
