The return of wide receiver Mecole Hardman to the Kansas City Chiefs brings a veteran with vast experience in the offense. The acquisition also allowed him to finally have an opportunity to reveal the struggles and trauma he endured with an injury last season.
Hardman was welcomed back to the Chiefs facility on Wednesday with a crowd of reporters ready to hear about his journey back to Kansas City. The former Georgia standout used the time to reveal his struggles through an unusual injury that almost cost him more than nine regular-season games last season while dispelling the notion that he is injury-prone.
“Like, how am I injury-prone? I don’t understand; first of all, I played three years, every game.” said Hardman, “I got into my fourth year and got into a freak injury that people don’t even have no idea about, which left me hospitalized actually the next day. And people really don’t understand, like I was in the hospital for ten days.
“I literally had no feeling in my leg for four days, four or five days, and I couldn’t walk for like four or five days. And then finally got the feeling back in my legs by, like, the sixth day. And [in] the next couple of days finally got discharged from the hospital.”
Hardman finished his 2022 season with 25 catches for 297 yards and four touchdowns in eight games. He returned briefly in the AFC Championship game before going down with another injury.
“Went on the road to recovery, also to get back to play in the AFC championship game, which I was freaking like, What 65, 70 percent And I end up, you know, tearing my groin on that play, the last play I played, which was a blessing in disguise for me, honestly, so I can really have surgery and repair everything.
“So people were saying injury prone, I’m like, Man, listen, I played every game never had a problem injury, of course in the season you will have knick-knack injuries, but never nothing that really kept me out or that I couldn’t play through. But that just so happened to be something. I had to actually have surgery and be in the hospital for days where I couldn’t come back and play.”
Hardman would reveal that after the initial injury, he went home and was in extreme pain, needing to be rushed to the emergency room after calling team athletic trainer Rick Burkholder. Doctors would diagnose him with ‘Osteitis pubis,’ but the former Pro Bowler believes it’s still unknown.
“It’s one of those injuries that makes you think about a lot of things,” said Hardman. “I’m just happy to be here and actually healthy and able to do the things I normally do.”