Hamstring Problem Will Affect Vikings’ WR Stefon Diggs
Mike Greitzer
|
Editor’s Note: This article comes from ‘The V61’ (vikings61.com), a friend and partner of Purple PTSD! Check out them out daily for news, analysis, and history of the Vikings! Follow the V61 on TWITTER here!
Although the Vikings have been fairly injury-free for training camp and preseason, a recent hamstring problem has hampered wide receiver Stefon Diggs in practice.
Anybody ever had a hammy?
Essentially, there are three grades of a hamstring injury, and all of them hurt. Essentially, I is a strain, II is a partial tear, and III is a complete tear.
Because the Vikings are obstinately tight-lipped about all injuries, little info on wide receiver Stefon Diggs recent hamstring problem is available. He has, however, missed an entire practice on Wednesday and returned to “limited” participation yesterday.
What can be deduced from that as the Vikings’ prepare to take on the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday?
If it was a complete tear (III), he would be out. If it was a partial tear or strain, Diggs could still play, but at what level of speed, strength and endurance? For those who want to dismiss a hamstring injury in an NFL wide receiver, I suggest you read the job description.
Look no further than Vikings’ running back Dalvin Cook last year, whose hamstring injury not only hindered his play, but got him scratched from several games.
Quicks
Anyone watching Stefon Diggs play is well-aware of his extraordinary “fast-twitch” musculature. The guy’s a cat out there on the football field.
It is exactly these muscles that Diggs has such complete control of that are the composition of the “hamstring”. They provide the strength and speed to pull off Diggs’ game. Even if he only has a strain, it’s not just going to heal by Sunday, and it will affect his performance, especially later in the game.
If it’s any kind of tear, he’ll be harassed by it for weeks to come. It does not take a doctor to understand a few things about football, the position Diggs plays, the way he plays it, and the nature of this injury.
A hamstring injury is not a matter of subjective argument. Nor is it a “mild setback”in the case of any athlete at the professional level.
Quick Fix?
There’s a score of therapies that can alleviate pain and accelerate healing of the twine of muscle that makes up the hamstring, but none other are more vital than rest.
The most critical factors in serious infirmity are one; an athletes history of the injury, and two; an overstretching and exertion of the musculature.
Diggs has never reported a hamstring in his past with Minnesota. This, obviously is good. However, Diggs’ game of start and stop, quick turn and full sprint is not what the doctor–any doctor–would order if even a mild sprain of a hamstring was disclosed.
It’s a bad design time to see it pop up, but dismissing it as a mild setback is foolish. A hammy is like a groin pull. It doesn’t go away without rest.
Professional football is made of extraordinary feats of physical ability and extreme muscular endurance to compete at top levels late in games.
Certainly these are the things that make up the job that Stefon Diggs is paid to do, but unfortunately, the last things you would ask a human body to do with a hamstring problem.
Let’s hope I’m over concerned about Stefon Diggs. I admire him as a player and we’re both Terps.
But I’ve also had a hammy–and it’s no picnic.