It has been a long time since New Orleans Saints Wide Receiver Michael Thomas has been able to see the field for a prolonged period, but he was starting to put a string of games together in 2023 before his most recent injury hit.
The receiver has been plagued with injuries throughout his NFL career. Here is a look back at his injury history.
Michael Thomas’ Current Injury
Thomas was placed on IR after the Saints players the Vikings in Week 10 when he left the game with a suspected knee injury. It happened on the first possession of the game, and the injury ended up being worse than first feared.
He was placed on IR shortly afterward, and the hope was that Thomas would play again in 2023.
A player has to spend a minimum of four weeks on IR, meaning the earliest possibility that Thomas could have returned was Week 16 on Dec. 21. when the Saints take on the LA Rams. Unfortunately for Thomas, he still isn’t ready to return.
Thomas has been able to put a run of games together in 2023 for the first time in three seasons, playing in 10 games so far in 2023.
Thomas’ Injury History Timeline
The Saints receiver has an extensive list of injuries since he entered the NFL, and Thomas has missed a significant amount of games in his career due to injury concerns.
Thomas’s first injury with the Saints came in 2015 when he suffered a groin injury during the playoffs. Thomas fought through and played during his injury but underwent surgery on a hernia in the offseason.
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Then, in Dec. 2016, Thomas missed Week 14 of the regular season due to a sprain in his foot that occurred during Week 13, even though he played the whole game.
A massive contract was about to come Thomas’s way in 2019 when he penned a five-year, $100 million deal. Despite the enormity of the contract, the deal was looking good value when Thomas was named Offensive Player of the Year for the 2019 season.
That is when Thomas’ most serious injuries started mounting up. From 2020 onwards, he has been impacted by injury after injury and has struggled to rekindle the same form he had early in his career.
In September 2020, Thomas suffered a high ankle sprain in the first week of the season. It led to Thomas missing four games, but he eventually returned to action.
Thomas’ unfortunate 2020 continued when he pulled his hamstring during a practice session, leading to him sitting out two more games. The receiver returned to action in December of that year but catastrophically reinjured his right ankle, seeing him miss the last three games of the season. He did, however, return for the playoffs.
The injury was another significant high ankle sprain to his right ankle. Even though he played through it during the postseason, Thomas had to undergo surgery to repair it during that offseason. The recovery was complicated, with struggles during his rehab, meaning he sat out the entirety of the 2021 season.
ESPN’s Katherine Terrell spoke to Thomas, who said, “When you get surgeries, and they put hardware in, sometimes your body rejects the hardware. Your body responds, and healing responds to it. Whatever, I guess, is, the 1%? I guess I’m in that category.”
Thomas took the time he needed to get back to full health, but his bad injury luck continued. In September 2022, he dislocated his toe in Week 3 against the Panther, which saw him miss the rest of the season.
2023 was going to be different. He completed in the first ten games of the season, but on the first drive of Week 10 against Minnesota, Thomas suffered a knee strain that has seen him sit on IR ever since.
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