Detroit Lions center Frank Ragnow suffered an injury of the bizarre variety during his team’s Week 14 loss to the Green Bay Packers – a fractured throat. Amazingly, Ragnow was able to finish the game, though he’s missed the past two games – halting what was a breakout season.
According to Ragnow, the injury occurred when the pads of an opposition linebacker collided with his throat.
“I started hurting pretty bad and my voice sounded like, you know, when your dog is chewing on a squeaker toy? When the squeaker toy gets broken and it’s kinda wispy,” he said. “I kept on talking to the medical team and their main concern was my airway and my airway was never threatened.”
And while the injury didn’t require surgery, Ragnow was rendered unable to speak for nearly two weeks.
“I wanted to FaceTime my mom and I literally couldn’t talk to my mom,” Ragnow said Friday, in his first media session with reporters since suffering the injury. “That was just frustrating wanting to celebrate with my family because they were really excited.”
Of course, he’d prefer to be on the field, but not at the potential cost of further damage to his vocal chords.
“The main concern these past couple weeks have been my vocal cords and really my voice in general. Otherwise, I would try to be out there, but I didn’t want to mess with my voice for the rest of my life.”
“Fortunately, nothing with the airway was threatened,” Ragnow continued. “Like I said, the biggest concern was my vocal cords, and really the only treatment I could do is not talk. So, fortunately, I got very lucky that I just had to not talk and my vocal cords are on track to make a full recovery.”
Ragnow was selected to his first Pro Bowl last month, and is listed as questionable for Detroit’s final game of the season this weekend against the Vikings.
– – Quotes via Tim Twentyman of DetroitLions.com Link – –
