Ben Roethlisberger said Tuesday he was fearful he broke his leg or suffered a season-ending injury when he was carted from the field in the third quarter of Sunday’s 12-6 Steelers victory in St. Louis.
Roethlisberger has a tear in his medial collateral ligament (MCL) and a bone bruise that is expected to keep him out for 4 to 6 weeks, though he said there is no timetable for his return.
“I don’t know,” Roethlisberger said, standing on crutches in the Steelers locker room and speaking for the first time since his injury. “It’s one of those things where we got to take it week by week. I know I’m out this week and we’ll re-evaluate next week and kind of go from there. There’s no way to put a timetable on it.”
Roethlisberger said the injury does not need surgery.
“The MCL is the issue with the stability; the bone bruise is the issue with the pain,” Roethlisberger said. “I can deal with a lot of pain, but this is pretty painful.”
When Roethlisberger fell to the ground as he was tackled by Rams safety Mark Barron, he grabbed below his left knee.
“Initially, my knee, my leg, everything hurt,” Roethlisberger said. “Eventually, my knee started to feel better, but as I was going off the field I told the doc I feel like my leg is broke. It felt really bad.
“What they concluded was that was the two bones smacking together that caused the bone bruise. That’s what I felt initially.”
Roethlisberger said he was told by team doctor James Bradley that, upon feeling the quarterback’s knee, the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) was not damaged.
“You’re always scared that it’s season-ending ACL surgery and things like that,” Roethlisberger said. “You still have that little bit of nerves until you get that MRI.”
Roethlisberger said he did not think the low hit by Barron, who was on the ground when he swiped at Roethlisberger, was dirty. Barron was not penalized on the play.
“I don’t think it was a dirty hit, I don’t think he was trying to take me out,” Roethlisberger said. “But according to the rules, it was a low hit, so maybe it should have been flagged. But I don’t think he did anything to intentionally hurt me.”
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