Commanders’ Chase Roullier reveals gruesome details from ankle surgery

The Washington Commanders‘ roster sustained so many injuries last campaign that the season-ending injury to Chase Roullier got swept under the rug.

In the Week 8 loss to Denver, Roullier suffered a fractured fibula that required season-ending surgery. That same week, Montez Sweat went down with a non-displaced jaw fracture that sidelined him for over a month.

At the time, Antonio Gibson was battling a stress fracture in his shin and Curtis Samuel was on the weekly injury report with his groin injury. Following the Week 9 bye, Chase Young tore up his knee and missed the rest of the year.

Pretty easy to see why Roullier’s injury got glossed over, but Washington is thrilled to have him back at practice after he started camp on the PUP list. The underrated center is still waiting his first reps in 11-on-11 drills, but he got some run in 9-on-9s Monday, which were his first snaps with Carson Wentz.

It was a long road back to the gridiron for Roullier, who told reporters over the weekend that his surgery was a lot more complicated than folks thought.

According to Roullier, he had a tightrope procedure, ligaments reattached and a plate put in his ankle to fully repair the damage.

Commanders center Chase Roullier revealed the gruesome details from his extensive ankle surgery.

Here’s Roullier’s full quote.

"“I had to have plates put in my tibia and then I had to reattach some ligaments in my ankle and then a tight rope procedure as well. It was pretty extensive surgery. You are in a cast for a while, so there is not much (rehab) for a couple of months.”“Then you are trying to build back strength in the calf, in the ankle, making sure you are gaining the mobility back so when you are able to put a load on it, it is not just a stiff brick. After that you are putting weight on it, getting back into running again on it. Then you progress into putting more loads on it in football positions.”"

Well, that certainly explains why it took Roullier so long to get back to full-strength. Having suffered the injury on Halloween of last year, the 28-year-old endured a seventh-month long recovery to get activated for training camp.

Given Roullier’s extended time on the shelf, Ron Rivera noted the stalwart offensive lineman will be eased back into practice. The fact he’s already partaking in 9-on-9 drills is a great sign and suggests he’ll be back in 11-on-11s relatively soon, though that’s tough to predict with padded practices just starting up.

Not to mention, like Roullier said, he has to adjust to playing on his surgically-repaired ankle, which now includes a hunk of metal.

It’s compelling (or worrying) to think how that could affect his game, but he’s as tough and consistent as they come at the center position. Once he gets through the adjustment period — which admittedly might take some time — he’ll be back thwarting opposing defensive linemen in no time.

Remember: the regular season is still over a month away. Plenty of time for Roullier to learn to play on the ankle and improve his conditioning.