Seven months after going through surgery, Houston Texans outside linebacker Jadeveon Clowney who was the no. 1 pick in the 2014 National Football League (NFL) Draft is "looking spectacular" according to team physician Dr. Walt Lowe.
Clowney played only four games in his rookie season last year after suffering a torn lateral right meniscus during their season opener against the Washington Redskins.
The 22-year-old athlete went through surgery and returned a month after but swelling continued. Because of articular cartilage damage, he underwent microfracture surgery last December that sidelined him for the remainder of the 2014 season.
According to ESPN, the surgery aims to have an increase in blood flow to help in the healing of the cartilage by creating tiny fractures in the bone surrounding the knee.
ESPN added that the surgery requires a "demanding and disciplined" rehabilitation time that is why the Texans decided to use blood flow restriction therapy, being the first team in the NFL to do so according to ESPN's Stephania Bell.
In an interview with Forbes, Lowe discussed the medical procedure and how it aims to minimize the muscle deficits happening during rehab by using a blood pressure cuff or tourniquet.
The tourniquet will be wrapped to the thigh or groin to decrease blood flow to 75 to 80 percent, Lowe shared.
According to him a guy of Clowney's size could have lost three or four centimeters of girth around his quadriceps but only lost a half to one centimeter while recovering from injury because of the blood flow restriction therapy.
Despite the positive signs Clowney is showing physically after all the surgeries he had been through, there is no certain timetable yet for his return.
Lowe said the healing process will take time as they need to return the strength to the injured area and be able to maintain it.
"The real goal in the end is to have him be who he was before he got hurt," Lowe said.
