The Rams’ offensive line was decimated by injuries last season, losing three starters at various parts in the year. Joe Noteboom and Brian Allen both suffered knee injuries and were forced to miss the rest of the season thereafter.
Noteboom is back on the practice field and feeling completely healthy, but Allen’s recovery has been much slower. In addition to coming back from the knee issue, Allen also had a battle with COVID-19 that he had to overcome, which delayed his return from injury.
On Friday, Allen opened up about his grueling rehab and bout with the coronavirus – he was the first NFL player to reveal he tested positive – and it doesn’t sound pleasant in the least bit. He was stuck at home while the teammates he lives with went to practice and the facility, leaving him alone for extended periods of time.
“So, me and Joe Noteboom had surgery on the same day. But with my injury, I tore my MCL, my meniscus and part of my tibia I fractured. For the healing process, I had to be non-weight-bearing for so long for my MCL and meniscus. But for stuff to start healing, I had to start walking, getting weight down. For the first month, I couldn’t even walk,” he said. “It really delays the healing process, as far as getting back and getting healthy. It made things take a little longer. As far as being out, one week I’m getting ready to play and then the next week, I’m not going to play until next year. That mentally was tough. You’re alone a lot. I live with guys on the team, so they’re going to practice, I’m sitting at home. My mom came and stayed with me for a couple weeks just to get me on my feet. But when she left, I’m alone all day. I come to rehab, I go home and just sitting on my couch, can’t walk. That was a tough time, but it’s going to make me better in the end.
The timing of his COVID diagnosis was certainly not ideal, either. He was at an important point in his rehab process, but because he tested positive for the virus, he wasn’t able to spend any time in the team facility working back to full strength.
That delayed things by about a month, which has impacted him this summer.
“As far as the COVID, that happened at an unfortunate time just because I was in a pretty critical part of rehab,” Allen said. “I had just started running and getting my strength back. I couldn’t come in the facility for three weeks. So, I was just at home. I think not having that setback, I’d be a full-go right now. But having that month push back from that, complicated things.”
As of now, it seems Allen will be the backup center to Austin Blythe, who has been working with the first-team offense all camp. Whether that’s because of Allen’s recovery or simply his performance isn’t exactly clear, but it’s simply an unfortunate situation all around for the third-year center.