The Pittsburgh Steelers placed quarterback Ben Roethlisberger on the Reserve/Injured list Monday and now he’ll get ready to have surgery on his right elbow that he injured during the team’s Sunday home loss to the Seattle Seahawks. Monday afternoon, Roethlisberger released a statement regarding his injury and possible football future moving forward. His statement is below.
“I’ve been informed that I need season ending surgery on my elbow to continue playing football at the level I expect. This is shocking and heartbreaking for me, to miss this much of a season and feel like I am letting down so many people. I can only trust God’s plan, but I am completely determined to battle through this challenge and come back stronger than ever next season. The Steelers committed three years to me this offseason and I fully intend to honor my contract and reward them with championship level play. I will do all I can to support Mason and the team this season to help win games. I love this game, my teammates, the Steelers organization and fans, and I feel in my heart I have a lot left to give.”
That’s a touching statement from Roethlisberger and it appears as though the veteran quarterback has all intentions of playing out his current contract, which now runs through the 2021 season as of this past offseason.
This marks the first time that Roethlisberger has been placed on Reserve/Injured during his NFL career and it’s got to be quite a sobering experience for him. While he’s missed several games throughout his career due to various injuries, he’s always managed to return from them.
At the time of this post we still don’t know exactly what the nature of Roethlisberger’s injury is. Will he require Tommy John surgery, which is the reconstruction of the ulnar collateral ligament? If he does, he might want to talk to former NFL quarterback Jake Delhomme about that.
Delhomme required Tommy John surgery in October 2007, and he was able to return in 2008 and play in all 16 games for the Carolina Panthers and lead the team to a 12-4 record. Delhomme told Chris Mortensen of ESPN on Monday that his arm was “better than ever” six months after having surgery.
