Cincinnati Bengals defensive end Trey Hendrickson appears to be preparing to undergo season ending surgery on his injured core later this week according to the latest reports.
Hendrickson, who has been limited to just 7 games this season, was seeking second opinions on his undisclosed injury that’s kept him out for the past 5 games. It would appear as though rest and rehab haven’t yielded the results that Cincinnati’s medical staff had hoped for, and the former All-Pro is now preparing to go under the knife.
Back in Week 6, Hendrickson suffered what the team labelled a “back injury” against Green Bay, before it was labelled a “hip injury” on the team’s injury report the next week. After sitting out the 2nd half of the game vs. the Packers, and the following week vs. Pittsburgh, the 31 year old returned vs. the Jets, but reaggravated it in the first half and has yet to resume playing since.
On the most recent injury report, Hendrickson was listed as “hip/pelvis” and doubtful, before eventually being ruled out of the contest vs. Buffalo. Despite the vagueness of the injury, rumours out of Cincy indicate that the upcoming procedure will likely sideline the star pass rusher for 6 weeks, which effectively ends the year for the Bengals, barring a miraculous turn of events in the AFC North standings.
The 4-9 Bengals could still theoretically win the AFC North, but would essentially need to win out and have both the Ravens and Steelers lay an egg down the stretch. With Hendrickson set to become a free agent at season’s end, it’s quite possible that he’s played his final snap as a member of the Bengals franchise.
Up next for Cincinnati is a divisional showdown with the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday, December 14th.
Photo: Spike2323. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.