Ah, thank you. The numbers in that article are largely irrelevant then. One of the links says that there have been a grand total of 2 professional athletes in any sport that have had that done.Eichel wants to have artificial disc replacement surgery, the team wants him to have a fusion.
Ah, thank you. The numbers in that article are largely irrelevant then. One of the links says that there have been a grand total of 2 professional athletes in any sport that have had that done.
edit - publishing date was 2018, so assume that data was through 2017
From that link (if you read the source papers) 80% of players returned to play, and the mean career after surgery was 3.2 years.
How much you gonna pay in a trade for those numbers?
edit - less facetiously, there are very low numbers in these studies - 25-101 at a quick reading. As I originally said, there simply isn’t the data to be “certain” about anything here.
Yeah, the issue between he and the team has been precedent.Ah, thank you. The numbers in that article are largely irrelevant then. One of the links says that there have been a grand total of 2 professional athletes in any sport that have had that done.
edit - publishing date was 2018, so assume that data was through 2017
Eichel wants to have artificial disc replacement surgery, the team wants him to have a fusion (I think the anterior version).
I could have sworn I read that the team wanted him to have the fusion if he has to have surgery.Actually I think the team is trying to avoid any kind of surgery, we just don't know where they're at yet. Part of the thing was that they wanted him to rest for 12 weeks and they'd see where they're at, but Eichel wants the surgery regardless and that's a big part of the disconnect.
Access to his medical records is irrelevant. Anyone with the appropriate level of training can read those papers and glean that there isn’t enough data to speak with any certainty on anything other than if surgery is required, he has a severe enough injury to where it’s uncertain how the stresses of the sport will affect his degree of recovery, ability to play at his current level, length of career, and breakdown of the neighboring disc spaces/need for future additional surgeries.Again, we have no access to his medical records and even if we did we are not qualified to interpret them. I am sure ever situation, individual, ect is unique. I trust our doctors to determine the level of risk and move forward accordingly. We are not gonna give up prime assets without doing our homework, so I’m not sure why that seems to be a fear of some.
It's a shame that pundits like Friedman and Dreger, et al are hyping the trade narrative with no discussion about the underlying injury. Saying a trade is possible within the next 2 weeks without explaining the status of his injury seems like click bait material and not serious "journalism" (if such a thing exists anymore). There is just a lot behind the scenes that we just don't know and the media is not being at all helpful in trying to dig for the story.
Access to his medical records is irrelevant. Anyone with the appropriate level of training can read those papers and glean that there isn’t enough data to speak with any certainty on anything other than if surgery is required, he has a severe enough injury to where it’s uncertain how the stresses of the sport will affect his degree of recovery, ability to play at his current level, length of career, and breakdown of the neighboring disc spaces/need for future additional surgeries.
None of those surgeries were done on players of Eichel’s caliber, either. What if he can return to playing, but his abilities are diminished by 5-10%? He’s still recovered, but he isn’t “Eichel” any more, because he’s lost some shot accuracy, or strength, or the ability to turn his head as well to see the ice, or… . There’s no way to measure that kind of thing.
For all we know, the injury is minor and Eichel is using the “we disagree on treatment, so I’m not going to play” as leverage to get out of Buffalo.
If that’s the case, the MD who recommended surgery should have their license revoked. And I would want nothing to do with a player unwilling to just say “I’m done with the organization, trade me”, because that would call their character into question. You’d be unable to trust them on medical issues for the rest of their career.For all we know, the injury is minor and Eichel is using the “we disagree on treatment, so I’m not going to play” as leverage to get out of Buffalo.