Vikings LB Cameron Smith To Undergo Open Heart Surgery, Won't Play in 2020

This is a scary health situation for the linebacker from USC, who will miss the Vikings' season.

Vikings linebacker Cameron Smith will miss the 2020 season with a scary health situation, he announced on Instagram on Saturday. After testing positive for COVID-19, Smith says doctors discovered – while conducting additional testing – that his heart was severely enlarged. He will undergo open heart surgery to fix the issue and is hoping to return to the field in 2021.

"Earlier this week I found out I need open heart surgery to fix a bicuspid aortic valve that I was born with," Smith wrote on Instagram. "Although this will unfortunately end my 2020 season, it is really a blessing that we found this as my heart is severely enlarged and wouldn’t have lasted much longer. I found this out after I tested positive for COVID and had to have further testing done as protocol. The Lord works in mysterious ways, but I could really feel him on this one!"

Smith continued by saying that he has no plans to give up on his football career.

"There is a surgery that will allow me to continue to play football as soon as I am healed and cleared and I didn’t think twice about going with that one. By no means am I ready to be done playing football, there is still so much more I want to accomplish on the field. I'm going to attack this like everything else I have in life. Already looking forward to the comeback!"

This sounds like an incredibly scary situation for Smith and his family. It's very lucky that he happened to get COVID-19, which led to this condition being discovered before it was too late.

I wish the best to Smith with his surgery and his long-term health.


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Will Ragatz
WILL RAGATZ

Will Ragatz is a senior writer for Vikings On SI. He is a credentialed Minnesota Vikings beat reporter, covering the team extensively at practices, games and throughout the NFL draft and free agency period. Ragatz attended Northwestern University, where he studied at the prestigious Medill School of Journalism. During his time as a student, he covered Northwestern Wildcats football and basketball for SB Nation’s Inside NU, eventually serving as co-editor-in-chief in his junior year. In the fall of 2018, Will interned in Sports Illustrated’s newsroom in New York City, where he wrote articles on Major League Baseball, college football, and college basketball for SI.com.