Giants wide receiver Steve Smith will undergo a complex surgery on Tuesday to repair the articular cartilage damage in his left knee and his return for the start of the 2011 season is very much in doubt.
It is not a run-of-the mill operation to be performed by team physician Dr. Russell Warren at the Hospital for Special Surgery. It is a multi-faceted procedure to repair the injury, according to someone with knowledge of Smith’s condition. It will require mosaicplasty as well as some microfracture procedures. A mosaicplasty procedure involves taking “plugs” of cartilage from normal areas of the knee and transferring it to the damaged area.
The prognosis for Smith’s recovery is good, but the rehabilitation process will be lengthy. He will be on crutches for six weeks. Given the nature of cartilage damage and these new procedures, there is no guarantee Smith will be ready for the start of next season. He could be out of commission for as long as nine months.
If there is any silver lining for Smith, it is that the injury is to a non-weight bearing area of his knee. The damaged area is the posterior lateral femoral condyle.
“The doctor said he expected him to make a full recovery,” Tom Coughlin said.
Asked if that means Smith would be ready for next season, Coughlin added: “That is what I have been told.”
The timing of this injury could not have come at a worse time for Smith, who is in the final year of his contract. Under normal situations, the Giants most likely would have re-signed Smith for big bucks after his breakthrough 2009 season, when he had a team-record 107 receptions. With labor uncertainty and the possibility of a lockout, the Giants have been unwilling to offer any contract extensions.
Now Smith is damaged goods as he heads into free agency, a fate that also befalls defensive end Mathias Kiwanuka, who played in only three games this season before going on injured reserve with a bulging cervical disk.
Smith missed four straight games with a partially-torn pectoral muscle until he returned for last week’s 21-3 victory over the Vikings. He got his only reception in the third quarter and on the play he was pulled down from behind by Vikings linebacker Chad Greenway, causing his left knee to hyperextend.