Report: Drew Brees reached out to Mike Trout about thumb surgery
New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees became the first NFL quarterback to undergo surgery to repair a torn UCL in his thumb, but he had one of the best stars in sports to discuss the procedure with.
Shortly before going under the knife, Brees met with two-time baseball MVP Mike Trout, according to a report from ESPN’s Chris Mortensen and Adam Schefter.
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Trout underwent the same surgery on his non-dominant left thumb in 2017, which was performed by by Dr. Steven Shin. The Los Angeles-based doctor is the same surgeon who operated on Brees, making the connection easy.
“After speaking with both doctors and other professional athletes, there have been no other NFL quarterbacks to have this surgery with the internal bracing on their throwing hand — I take that as a challenge!” Brees told ESPN in a text message.
How did Trout handle UCL surgery on his thumb?
Trout missed six weeks recovering from the injury in 2017 but reportedly told Brees that he was pain-free and regained a full range of motion after just five weeks. That matches up closely with the Saints hopeful timeline of getting Brees back by Week 9.
Whether or not Trout would have been ready to play at a high level after five weeks is up for debate — Brees’ injury being to his throwing hand makes it harder to come back from — but Trout looked like his normal self immediately after coming back from the injury.
The eight-time All-Star picked up hits in 19 of his first 21 games games back with seven home runs. Overall, he declined from .337/.461/.742 before the injury to .285/.429/.552 after the surgery, but that is still a very at a high level to be playing at, and it’s unclear how much the surgery had to do with it.
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