We’ll be honest. This isn’t exactly the best news we could have hoped to hear this week. Miami Dolphins star cornerback Xavien Howard went under the knife this week to scope out his worrisome left knee — and made the world aware of it by sharing a photo on his social media account.
Dolphins head coach Brian Flores confirmed Howard underwent a procedure yesterday during his availability with the press, but a confirmation was about as far as Flores was willing to go, instead opting to provide some confidentiality for Howard and his current situation.
“(Xavien Howard) had surgery on his knee. I’m not going to go into details on exactly what type of surgery he had, but he had surgery on his knee as you can see,” said Flores.
“I don’t like to go into detail about specific injuries and what happened, so I’ll just stay away from that one. He had surgery. He’s recovering. Surgery went well and he’s recovering. He’s going to do everything possible to get himself back and ready to go as quickly as possible.”
The news of Howard’s knee requiring surgery is worrisome, to say the least. Howard for all of his gifts and his commitment to his craft and his success on the field, has missed 24 games over the course of his four NFL seasons to date — and has now had at least three surgical procedures done on his knees. Howard has missed 13 of the Dolphins’ last 18 games, all due to knee ailments.
Will the issues continue? The hope is obviously not. Miami clearly sees Howard as a part of their long-term plan here in Miami, otherwise the team would not have given Howard the contract extension they did over the course of the summer. But Howard’s knee will have to cooperate to see this marriage come to fruition.
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