Joe Burrow on track to return for start of 2021 season, per his surgeon

The Cincinnati Bengals have another busy offseason ahead of them, but Joe Burrow’s recovery and rehab is of the upmost importance.

Burrow is just a couple weeks removed from successful reconstructive knee surgery for his torn ACL that he suffered on November 22nd. The surgeon who performed the operation, Dr. Neal ElAttrache, has a history of getting athletes back to 100%, and Burrow is just the latest star he’s worked with.

On the latest episode of The Adam Schefter Podcast, Schefter had Dr. ElAttrache on to talk about his work as an orthopedic surgeon and to provide updates on Burrow and other players he’s recently operated on, such as Saquon Barkley and Nick Bosa.

Dr. ElAttrache said all three players are “on track for the beginning of the season next year” and offered more good news when asked specifically about Burrow.

“When you say he’s on track, there’s just a few criteria you look for,” Dr. ElAttrache said. “What I can say is everything that’s come our way this year so far, even though they’ve been very complex, I’m extremely happy with what we’ve been able to do. We’ve fixed it in a way that I’m confident that they’ll be able to play again.”

You can listen to the full segment here:

And you can listen to the entire podcast here:

Needless to say, this is good news, but it is still early. Burrow’s initial recovery timetable gave him a good chance to return right before the start of the regular season next year, and he’ll need to have a consistently smooth recovery and rehab process for that to happen. Luckily, Cincinnati has a good history of getting its players back in time from torn ACLs. Nick Cosgray, the team’s Director of Rehabilitation and Performance, can be attributed to that success.

These are early days indeed, but any good news is still good news.