Tom Brady's favorite target, Rob Gronkowski, left the AFC Championship Game on Sunday with a concussion after a helmet-to-helmet hit.
PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Will the Patriots play in their second straight Super Bowl without Rob Gronkowski, one of their most potent offensive weapons?
Don't bet on it, say two doctors who spoke to The Providence Journal on Monday.
"Since it's two weeks [before the Super Bowl], it makes it a lot more likely that he can make it back in time," said Dr. Erin Manning, assistant attending neurologist at the Hospital for Special Surgery in Manhattan.
Gronkowski left Sunday's game against the Jacksonville Jaguars after a helmet-to-helmet hit by a defender in the second quarter. The New England tight end suffered a concussion and was ruled out for the rest of the game, one which saw Tom Brady and the Patriots complete yet another comeback to clinch a return trip to the Super Bowl, Feb. 4, in Minnesota to face the Philadelphia Eagles.
The Patriots now have the prospect of playing the biggest game of the season — less than two weeks away — without Gronk, who led the team with 69 receptions for 1,084 yards and eight touchdowns in the regular season.
"There's no crystal ball that predicts recovery," said Dr. Neha Raukar, an emergency room physician at Rhode Island, Newport and Miriam hospitals who specializes in sports injuries. "But I'm very optimistic that he'll be cleared."
Raukar, who has not treated Gronkowski, explained that concussions occur "when the brain shakes inside the skull" due to some external force, which damages the axons — the nerve cells that transmit signals — in the brain. On Sunday, that force came from Jaguars safety Barry Church, who was penalized for unnecessary roughness on the play.
Recovery, which is spelled out in the NFL's concussion protocol, mostly entails allowing the body time to repair those axons.
"They don't heal on a predictable time schedule," Raukar said, adding it can sometimes take 24 to 48 hours for all the symptoms to show themselves. Symptoms can include headaches, dizziness, visual problems and more.
"We saw him wobble off the field, but we don't really know the extent of it," she said.
The NFL's concussion protocol, begun in 2009, has five steps that kick in once a concussion has been confirmed.
The process starts with a "rest and recovery" stage in which a player is removed from practices and team meetings while focusing on activities such as stretching and balance work. Gradually, the player begins light exercises, then advances to football activities before ultimately being cleared for full practice and games by both the team and an independent neurologist.
"The minimum [recovery time] is five days," said Manning, who also has not treated Gronk. She explained that for most people, it's more like seven days or more.
Manning expects the Pats tight end will spend the next few days not doing very much, and says with the two-week break, she expects Gronkowski will suit up with his teammates at U.S. Bank Stadium.
Last year, Gronk was not on the field when the Patriots beat the Atlanta Falcons in Super Bowl LI. He had suffered a lower back injury in a November game against the Jets and missed the rest of the season.
Manning commended the training staff for its actions on Sunday: "They did the right thing, they took him right back to locker room," she said after watching the events on TV.
"The next few days will tell," she said. "If you see him at practice in a few days, and running, that's a good sign."