Lions offensive tackle Gosder Cherilus hasn't been participating in the team's OTAs because he had arthroscopic knee surgery "about three weeks ago," the Free Press is reporting. Cherilus suffered from various injuries during the 2009 season, but he didn't need surgery until after he tweaked his knee while working out earlier in the offseason. The tweak led to an MRI, which eventually led to the surgery to remove some "debris," as Cherilus' agent put it.
Although it's never good for an offensive lineman to have knee surgery, the good news is that it doesn't sound too serious. Although Cherilus has missed the Lions' OTAs and probably won't be participating in any of them, chances are he will be back in time for the mandatory minicamp in June.
Cherilus is running on a treadmill in a pool and hopes to be back as early as late May, his agent, Greg Diulus, said. Diulus said Cherilus should be back by the mandatory minicamp June 23-25 and "without question" by training camp in late July.
"Gos is not a real patient guy when it comes to injuries," Diulus said today. "He tends to get back before he should. But with the trainers there, they’ll hold him back for the appropriate amount of time."
The most important thing for Cherilus to do right now is to simply get healthy. Cherilus has had a tough enough time developing as it is, and the last thing he needs to worry about is a knee injury. If Cherilus can get healthy by the time training camp rolls around -- and it sounds like he certainly should be able to -- then he can just concern himself with continuing to develop as the Lions' starting right tackle rather than worry about injuries as well.