What's going on with Mat Barzal's 'controlled' knee inflammation? | The Injury Report

This is the Injury Report, presented by NYU Langone Health. Matt Barzell is skating again, and the Islanders say that his knee inflammation is under control. So why is there still no timeline for his return? Well, this week on Injury Report, we're going to break down the checkpoints before Barzell's comeback and the difference between returning to the lineup and returning to full strength. And to do that, we're going to talk with Dr. Guillermo Lomas of NYU Langone, who joins me now. Dr. Lomas, how are you doing? I'm doing great. Thanks for having me on. now glad to have you on here on Injury Report and doctor let's get right into it because Matt Barzal he's been sidelined by knee inflammation since training camp and for fans hearing that description what does inflammation actually tell us and what additional information would you need as a doctor to understand why it's keeping a player off the ice yeah i mean look inflammation is sort of a general term for for discomfort for pain right oftentimes that's what we're using it's pretty, it's pretty vague. Um, so in this case, I think really what it's telling us is, uh, there's something that's bothering him. That's not letting him either practice or play, uh, at his full potential. And so that's, that's probably where, where we'd have to leave that. Cause it is a generic term. Um, and really not, not too specific about, you know, what injury we might be looking at. So without trying to put a date on his comeback, wouldn't ask you to do that. What makes a recovery like this difficult to predict and what should fans understand about the difference between returning to the lineup and then returning to full performance i think this is one of the hardest things in professional sports especially when someone has been sidelined for a while you know these players are gamers they want to play uh this is their livelihood and they love playing so you know they want to do it um you also know that they want to be effective right And that's another component of it. And finally, you want to make sure that you're not potentially exposing them to additional injury. And we know you can get injured at any point. You know, there's no guarantee that that can't happen. But you want someone to feel, again, confident that they're able to handle the stresses and they're able to feel like themselves. They're able to be, you know, that effectiveness. And sometimes that's even a question we ask them, you know, hey, what percent do you feel like yourself now? So that's really what they're looking at. And I think these injuries are difficult. Truly, each one is different. You cannot predict, because one person had a certain return to play timeline, you can't predict that someone else will. has nothing to do with the individual not having their head in it. It just has to do with the body being different, the history that the player has had with injury, and ultimately, look, the teams and the players are aligned here. Their interest is in having that player return, perform, get back to their job, their livelihood, and I think all of these players want nothing more than to do that as well. So the alignment's there, and it's just a matter of getting to the point where they're capable of returning.