There has been a ton of conflicting information over Matthew Stafford's injury since last night. Even before he was scheduled to have an MRI some outlets were reporting how long Stafford would be out and what specifically was wrong with him. While much of that was just speculation, it was based really on nothing since Stafford didn't have an MRI until today.
Now that Stafford has had an MRI, there is still surprisingly quite a bit of speculation about his health going forward. The Lions didn't say a whole lot about the results of the MRI other than surgery isn't expected to be necessary, but Adam Schefter reported this about an hour ago:
QB Matthew Stafford has second-degree separated shoulder; planning to visit Dr. James Andrews as early as this week. Out this week at least.
Although Schwartz said surgery isn't expected, it would concern me if Stafford does indeed visit Dr. James Andrews. Usually when he is consulted, the injury is pretty serious. Of course, this could just be a precautionary visit to make sure surgery absolutely isn't necessary, but it's concerning to think about.
It's always possible that Schefter's report isn't accurate, because Stafford apparently denied hearing anything about a second-degree separation during an interview with Mitch Albom. He also denied having a torn labrum or torn rotator cuff, which is good to hear even though I don't think that type of injury has been suggested by anyone yet.
Just for the sake of entertaining Schefter's report, if Stafford does in fact have a second-degree separation, he could be looking at a recovery time of six to eight weeks, according to HealthCentral.com's write up on the treatment for this kind of injury.
The treatment for first- and second-degree shoulder sprains is rest. The patient will have to put the shoulder in a sling for one to three weeks, depending on the severity of the injury. Also, in addition to resting the shoulder, the patient must ice it for 20 to 30 minutes a few times a day in the beginning to ease the pain.
These are particularly frustrating injuries because they can take six to eight weeks to heal. One may not be able to raise the arm laterally beyond 90 degrees until the injury has healed.
I imagine we will find out more as the week progresses, but right now there still seems to be a lot of uncertainty about how severe Stafford's injury is.