Pittsburgh Steelers pass rusher T.J. Watt underwent successful surgery to repair a partially collapsed lung on Thursday his brother confirmed. Watt’s older brother J.J. told fans that “He and his family are very appreciative of everyone’s kind words and well wishes,” via a social media post, with the expectation that his brother would be released from hospital within the next 24 hours.
Watt was hospitalized after a dry needling session at the Steelers practice facility resulted in a partially collapsed lung. The injury is not that dissimilar to the one sustained by Tyrod Taylor when he was a member of the Chargers organization back in 2020. Taylor was receiving treatment for a rib injury, before a punctured lung caused him to be sidelined for month.
While the team has yet to officially rule the 31 year old out for Monday night’s matchup against the Miami Dolphins, it’s highly unlikely he would be medically cleared to play. Watt is coming off a productive performance against the Baltimore Ravens in which he recorded six tackles, one tackle for loss, and a QB hit, while seeing 88% of the team’s defensive snaps.
On the year the 4x All-Pro has 3 forced fumbles, 2 fumble recoveries, 7 sacks, and 18 QB hits. If he were unable to suit up this week, the team would turn to a combination of Alex Highsmith, Nick Herbig and Jack Sawyer to get after Dolphins QB Tua Tagovailoa.
Pittsburgh is currently in a dog fight for the AFC North Divisional crown against the aforementioned Ravens, with both teams separated by just 1 game with 4 weeks to play. The Steelers can ill afford a late season stumble as the Ravens will travel to Pittsburgh on January 4th for what’s shaping up to likely be a pivotal game for both teams in the AFC playoff picture.
Photo: Erik Drost. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.