Brees May Be Out 6 Weeks With Rib Injury

All indications point to the New Orleans Saints quarterback making a full recovery. 

In the meantime, Brees is likely in considerable pain since the injury was “severe enough to cause the pressure of the lung to shrink the actual lung tissue,” Dr. Finstein told Fox8. 

Patients typically have slight difficulty in breathing with these types of injuries, but nothing more serious. Treatment, Dr. Finstein added, is non-surgical. Medications are prescribed to alleviate pain while he heals.

Pontchartrain Orthopedics and Sports Medicine offers treatment for a wide variety of sports injuries like Brees’, as well as fractures, knee and shoulder injuries, sprains, groin pulls, shin splints, ACL tears, tennis elbow, tendonitis, concussions or cartilage injuries. Our sports-medicine physicians can also provide advice on injury prevention, exercise, and nutrition.

Dr. Finstein, a board-certified orthopedic surgeon, specializes in sports medicine and has served as a sideline physician at De la Salle High School for some five years, while treating many athletes throughout the greater New Orleans area.

“I think it is something where if I were the team doctor for the Saints, you want to make sure that Drew is comfortable before you put him back into the game,” Dr. Finstein added.

Team physicians will likely be closely watching Brees’ reaction to every-day football moves when evaluating him for a return to the field. Once he’s made a full recovery, there’s no reason to believe he won’t be back under center with the Saints. 

“I think he could be 100 percent, the same with the collapsed lung,” Dr. Finstein told Fox8 in a recent article. “Once that resolves, he should be fine.”