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Mike White stopped just short of calling actors who play doctors on television with the hope that someone would say he can play Sunday for the Jets.
None would give the green light to White – who revealed Friday that he suffered multiple consecutive rib fractures last week against the Bills – and so the Jets will be without their starting quarterback and turn to benched former starter Zach Wilson against the Lions. Team doctors cleared White on Monday for practice but not for contact and independent medical experts told The Post that a three-week recovery (two games missed) would be the best-case scenario.
“I think I’ve tried talking to almost 10 doctors just to try to find somebody to clear me, and they just won’t. And I completely understand why,” White said. “But I’m always going to try to fight like hell to be out on the field with my guys, so it’s frustrating, but it’s part of football.”
Because White finished the last game after being knocked out of the lineup twice, it raises questions about what changed in his medical evaluation. White was cleared to return to the game in Buffalo after he had X-rays in the stadium. He underwent a CT scan at an area hospital that cleared him to fly home on the team plane. But further, more precise testing this week revealed further injury.
“One of the conversations I had with my wife [was] yes, I’m a football player now, but I have to be her husband, my kids’ dad for well past my playing days,” White said, “so that definitely gets factored into it, which made it that much tougher.”
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Dr. David Chao of SICscore.com – and the Chargers’ former head physician – said that “rib fractures don’t always show up on even the best quality of X-rays” and that if “some of the fractures go into the cartilage, in that case the X-ray would never show it.”
Another possibility, Chao speculated based on his experience, is that “one cracked rib, maybe even two, you are OK” to play with an injection to tolerate pain, but any more than two and a destabilized “flail chest” becomes a concern. Chao added that not clearing White for contact suggests concern for a lung issue if he takes a big hit in the wrong spot.
White was a limited participant in Friday’s practice because he can throw without pain. Head coach Robert Saleh called White an “absolute warrior” for exhausting all avenues to play. It is standard NFL practice for players to seek second opinions and the Jets’ doctors welcome being challenged, Saleh said.
“It came to the point of: Let’s just protect him from him,” Saleh said. “Could he find one [to clear him]? Maybe. It’s not worth it to string along. This is more of an organizational decision to just move forward, and we’ll live to fight another day.”
The injury comes at an especially inopportune time as the Jets are about to play two games in five days, with a quick turnaround to Thursday against the Jaguars. White will be re-evaluated Monday, including more scans, and Saleh said he “has a chance for Thursday.”
Chao and Dr. Ryan Dowling, who specializes in orthopedic trauma for North Jersey Orthopedic Group and is affiliated with St. Joseph’s University Medical Center, sounded less optimistic without seeing White’s test results.
“The reason rib fractures [are difficult] is any time you take a breath, your rib cage is expanding, so it’s not as if you can’t move the bone,” Dowling said, referencing the worst-case scenario lung issues that hospitalized former quarterbacks Drew Brees and Drew Bledsoe as to why withholding contact is recommended. “It takes about six weeks to heal, in general, but NFL players often play with partially healed ribs. That’s the three-week mark. I could see him playing that third weekend.”
It is déjà vu for White, who was sensational in his first start this season, just like he was in 2021. He suffered an elbow injury in his second start and only made one more last season. For Jets fans, Wilson’s return is reminiscent of 2012 (when a benched Mark Sanchez resurfaced after Greg McElroy was injured) and 2016 (when a benched Ryan Fitzpatrick resurfaced after injuries to Geno Smith and Bryce Petty).
“If it’s 7-on-7, he’d be out there playing,” Saleh said “But it’s not.”
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