Travis Kelce Provides Update on Knee Injury and Week 2 Chances

A new episode of 'New Heights' sees the Chiefs' star TE provide some new context on his knee injury and the possibility of playing this weekend.

The Kansas City Chiefs might be getting two of their three best players back for a Sunday matchup against the Jacksonville Jaguars, so long as things go as planned with tight end Travis Kelce and defensive tackle Chris Jones. The former is recovering from a scary knee injury, although things appear to be looking up.

Kelce, the Chiefs' primary pass-catcher, suffered a hyperextended knee during last Tuesday's practice that required a reported 45 cc of blood to be drained from the area in its aftermath. Kansas City initially feared that the injury was much more serious than a bone bruise, but subsequent testing revealed that the ailment turned out to be relatively minor in nature. Kelce's knee didn't respond well enough to treatment in time for the club's Thursday night opener against the Detroit Lions, forcing the superstar to sit due to injury for the first time in nearly a decade. 

Appearing on this week's edition of the New Heights podcast with his brother Jason, Kelce provided an update on how things are going in his injury rehab. Saying he felt like an "asshole" for not being available to begin the season, the 33-year-old explained that he planted his foot in the ground and suffered the hyperextension thereafter. Here's more from Kelce on the show: 

"Seriously though, I did feel like an asshole for not being able to be out there Week 1. I know you've got to be very fortunate to play this game. I take a lot of this to heart, being able to be out there every single week. You were kind of talking about the toughness rating on Madden — I love to put that on my shoulders, on my resume, that I make myself available every single week. And the last practice going into the first game, I got a little lazy on some of my movement and sure enough, offed myself and couldn't play in the first game."

Speaking to the media on Monday via Zoom, Chiefs head coach Andy Reid said Kelce was "progressing" and "getting better" as time passed. At the time, he still didn't have a complete read on whether his best offensive weapon (not named Patrick Mahomes) would be given the green light for Sunday's game. With quite a bit of time between outings to rest, there's optimism on both sides that Kelce could potentially make a return. He's not out of the woods yet, though, and he elaborated on how much of a toll it took on him to miss the Lions game: 

"Not fun dealing with an injury, especially that late in the week because then you, for 72 hours straight, are just worried about one single thing. Everybody's asking you about it, everybody's in your ear about it, everybody's just trying to figure out what's the best scenario. It's not like the organization was banking on me being back, but everybody in the organization is asking me how I'm doing so that we can go out there with the right game plan, the right mentality. It's just not fun. Not a lot of sleep and a lot of focus on a knee that wasn't getting better fast enough. So, a lot better than last week, and it doesn't help when your brother is on national television telling everybody that you're going to play."

Kelce says he got some running in during an early-week practice, ultimately taking a wait-and-see approach that echoes the same sentiment as Reid's from Monday. As Sunday draws near, expect additional clarity on Kelce's status for the game to be provided from his head coach:

"I did run yesterday, and it feels like I might be able to play this week. We'll see how practice goes, man."

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