The Detroit Lions finally broke the Dallas Cowboys' winning streak, but as fans now well know, during the game defensive lineman Aidan Hutchinson broke his left leg, specifically both bones below the knee, and underwent surgery to put them back together.

How long Hutch will be out was a source of speculation among fans, sports writers and physicians.

Hutchinson underwent successfully surgery Sunday night to repair a broken tibia and fibula at Baylor White Medical Center in Irving, Texas, the team said Monday morning. He is expected return to Detroit this week and make a full recovery.

"He's in good hands right now," Lions coach Dan Campbell said right after the game. "He's being taken care of. He'll stay back here. Obviously, he's going to be down for a little while. That's tough, man. It's hard to lose someone like him."

Detroitlions.com, the team’s official news source, described the injury as significant. Hutchinson sacked Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott and collided with teammate Alim McNeill, which, in the opinion of one expert, is what caused the break.

One sports medicine doctor who studied game video described the injury as if Hutchinson were whacked in the shin with a bat and predicted that Hutchinson likely would have a metal rod in his leg to help hold and weld the broken fragments back together.

Professor David Fausone, in the physical therapy department at Oakland University's School of Health Sciences, told the Free Press he expects Hutchinson will be on crutches at first, and, as swelling and pain subside, doctors and therapists likely will get the player moving more.

They will work on range of motion and ultimately strengthening his leg, the professor said.

"They didn't give details of the surgery," Fausone said. "But, in my experience, if the average person were to have that type of injury and undergo surgery and a rehab process, you'd probably be looking at approaching normal function in three to five months."

Less time, perhaps, for an athlete.

But Fausone said it's unlikely Hutchinson will be back for playoffs.

A good recovery prognosis

Sportswriter Ian Rapoport, who focuses on the NFL, offered his opinion on X that Hutchinson’s injury is "obviously season-ending" but reported that the "early prognosis is that being ready for 2025 shouldn’t be an issue."

And Dr. Christopher Cooke, an orthopedic surgeon at DMC Orthopedics and Sports Medicine, predicted that Hutchinson could be back on the sidelines in one to two weeks with crutches, and in four to six weeks without the crutches.

Cooke, who was interviewed by WJBK-TV (Fox 2), said he’s had patients with similar injuries start jogging again as early as 10-12 weeks. But the doctor said he hasn’t had an athlete fully resume sports activities in less than four to five months.

Cooke added, "you’re not going to find a better candidate" than Hutchinson to recover.

Football, a contact sport, is associated with injuries, even with considerable protective gear, partly because it is so physical with violent clashes with other players, movement at high speeds, and sudden, jarring direction changes.

Injuries, Chicago-area orthopedic surgeon Benjamin Domb noted in his online blog, range from muscle sprains and tears to bone fractures to head and neck injuries.

In 1991, Detroit Lions player Mike Utley suffered a game injury that resulted in paralysis. And last year, Buffalo Bills’ Damar Hamlin collapsed on the field during a game in what has been described as a sudden cardiac arrest. He recovered and returned to playing football.

Like a bat to the shin

As for Hutchinson, he was carted off the field. His leg was put in an air cast, and he then underwent surgery in Dallas.

He would not, Lions reports said, travel back to Detroit with the team.

Dr. Brian Sutterer, a sports medicine specialist at Southeast Health in Missouri who hosts a YouTube channel, offered some of his thoughts on the injury in a video based on his expertise and what he saw during the broadcast.

In Sutterer’s observation, it looks like the defensive lineman was swung around, and contact with a teammate’s leg led to the injury. Momentum, combined with force, caused the bone — and possibly both leg bones — to break.

In the area of the leg that was hit, the doctor said, there was no muscle to cushion the blow, adding that “this is just like taking a metal bat, and swinging and hitting directly in the shin, ultimately leading to the break.”

Sutterer said how the injury is treated will likely depend, in part, on whether the fracture went through the skin. Infection could be a concern. It is likely, he said, that a rod will be inserted in the Hitchinson’s leg to hold the broken pieces together.

The physician said he expects the injury to be a season-ending injury, but if all goes well, Hutchinson could be back next year, and the injury should not affect the rest of his football career. And, he said, while a broken bone can be mentally challenging for a player, it can be easier to fix, medically.

The cliché is that adversity makes athletes stronger.

And a few years ago, Hutchinson’s father, an emergency medicine physician who was an All-American defensive tackle at the University of Michigan, offered some thoughts on how the sport helped him.

Chris Hutchinson initially signed with the Cleveland Browns, but after developing complications from a tetanus shot during rookie camp, ended up going to med school, and in a U-M article about his work on the front lines saving lives, gave an interesting insight.

Being in "uncomfortable situations" on the gridiron, he said, helped prepare him for other challenges later.

Contact Frank Witsil: 313-222-5022 or fwitsil@freepress.com.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Aidan Hutchinson injury: Doctor explains recovery for Detroit Lions DE