Report: More details emerge about Tom Brady’s elbow injury

An explanation of the injury.

New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady is dealing with a case of tennis elbow, according to NFL Network’s Michael Giardi.

Brady has been listed as limited on the team’s injury report on multiple occasions this season with the elbow injury. However, he was not listed for Week 16 when he was a full participant. In Week 15, he was a full participant but was listed with the injury. He was limited for a few practices from Weeks 14 to 12 when he couldn’t finish a Friday practice. Brady has downplayed the injury for weeks.

“Isn’t there some HIPAA violation or something like that when I start talking about all of my injuries?” Brady joked with Westwood One’s Jim Gray in early December. “I’m doing pretty good. I’m doing pretty good. At this time of the year, I’ll take it. I’ll take anything if I’m still able to go out there and feel like I can play my best. I’m feeling really good, really positive about this weekend.”

Here’s what The Boston Sports Journal’s medical contributor, Jessica Flynn, M.D., wrote about tennis elbow:

“These tendons allow the athlete to extend or cock back the wrist and supinate the forearm (rotate the palm up). Over time, the tendons can develop tiny micro-tears from repetitive work (throwing) and the area around the bony attachment gets inflamed. Patients I see complain that they can’t lift a jug of milk or even a cup of coffee without pain, it hurts to shake hands or grip.

“The treatment? Immobilize the wrist. … I know, it’s weird for an elbow issue to be treated with a wrist brace, but remember those tendons are under stress when they’re moving the wrist. Therapy, pliability work on the muscles that attach to those tendons and TIME. Lots of patients want to hurry things up with a steroid injection, but I always try to avoid it. Steroids stop the healing process. The body needs to make a big deal about an injury like this, with swelling and irritation, to get growth factors to the area to fix the problem for good. Steroid injections stop that process.”

It’s, perhaps, a positive sign that Brady wasn’t listed on the injury report after what has seemed to be a restful few weeks of practice.

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