Houston Texans defensive end J.J. Watt tore his pectoral muscle shortly before halftime against the Oakland Raiders in a 27-24 win on Oct. 27 at NRG Stadium.
Unlike outside linebacker Whitney Mercilus, who tore his pectoral muscle on Oct. 8, 2017, in a 42-34 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs, and said he heard a loud pop, Watt claims to have not felt any sensation immediately.
“I didn’t have any pain whatsoever when it happened,” Watt told reporters Tuesday. “I didn’t have any. I knew something was wrong, but I didn’t have any pain, I think it was just such a fast thing.”
When Watt’s play wasn’t producing the same high level of results that he’s accustomed to throughout his nine-year career that has garnered a record-tying three NFL Defensive Player of the Year awards, that is when he knew something was off with his play.
“I knew something was wrong, I kind of — I didn’t know what was wrong and then I tried to play the next play and realized something was pretty wrong,” Watt explained. “Then I went over and they told me what it was, they knew right away. But yeah, they just put it back on and then two months later, here we go.”
Watt returned to practice on Tuesday and the club is in the process of activating him from injured reserve, using their last designated to return tags to do so. Watt can’t play in the Week 17 finale against the Tennessee Titans at 3:25 p.m. CT at NRG Stadium, as he has to miss eight full weeks from the time he was placed on injured reserve. However, the club has a 21-day window to place him on the active roster with a deadline of 3:00 p.m. CT on game day of the AFC wild-card to be played on Jan. 4-5 at NRG Stadium.