2 min read • March 06, 2022
Posted in
John Metchie III tore the ACL in his left knee early last December, but he has a potentially bigger red flag regarding his draft status.
The 21-year-old Alabama star wide receiver had a heart scare in his freshman year of high school after reportedly taking a hard hit to the chest.
He sat out the rest of the year and underwent several visits to heart specialists, then was cleared to continuing playing football before his sophomore year of high school.
Metchie's story has deservedly received plenty of media coverage, but full details about the heart scare have not come out.
A majority of the publicly available descriptions refer to his issue as an enlarged heart that caused murmurs. Another article mentioned that he had "a bend in his aorta near his heart wall."
While Metchie has been able to play without complications since the issue was discovered in 2015, his exact heart problem warrants investigation from team doctors more than his surgically repaired knee, said Dr. David Chao, ProFootballDoc.
"The hope is that his heart becomes a non-issue once it's checked," Chao said.
It's possible he has already gone through a stress test, a cardiac echo and even angiogram before he was cleared by the doctors at Alabama, Chao said. If that's the case, NFL team doctors simply need to review that data and see that its in a safe range.
Metchie's heart problem may have even been put to bed if he was cleared to workout at the combine, but his injured left knee has prevented that.
He said he expects to be medically cleared for action by June, but Metchie still faces long odds to be ready for Week 1, Chao said.
Expect a much better second half of the season for him if his past heart issue checks out fine, Chao said.
For now, that remains a big "if."
Metchie is currently projected to be chosen late in the second round.
Injury history data provided by the 2022 rookie injury guide written by Dr. Ethan Turner, PT, DPT. Twitter @ETurnerFF. If you'd like to learn more about the injury histories of the 2022 class you can pre order your copy here
Written by
