Erick All Jr. worried his career might be over back in 2024 when he re-tore the ACL he injured the year prior in his final college season at Iowa. Even now, as the Cincinnati Bengals tight end finally is back to practicing with his teammates, he can’t help but wonder if it could happen again.

That’s not to say the Fairfield High School graduate isn’t up for the challenge of completing his return to competition. He is already through the toughest part – a 19-month grueling recovery, healing and rehab process that has him almost cleared for full activities.

All finally feels comfortable on his surgically-repaired knee and showed it this week, participating in Organized Team Activities, but it’s tough not to have doubts after all he has been through to get to this point.

“Of course, yeah, I mean, I still do worry about it sometimes,” All said in his first interview with local media since the Nov. 3, 2024, re-injury. “I mean, you never really know. I try to just focus more on the controllables. I can't really control it if I get hurt or hurt again or not, but I'd say I think more about if it were to happen again instead of like coming back from it and not being able to get back to my full potential.”

It’s supposed to be difficult to re-tear an already repaired ACL, but All’s initial surgery at Iowa didn’t go as it should have.

When All went down in the Week 9 win over the Las Vegas Raiders during his rookie season in 2024, he wasn’t shocked it happened. Frustrated, angry and disappointed, but not completely surprised. Although he had tried to convince himself he was fine as he went through the NFL Draft process and started his professional career as a fourth-round pick of his hometown team, All knew deep down his knee wasn’t right.

All said his steps had felt “wobbly” even before he re-tore the ACL.

The Bengals set him up with renowned orthopedic specialist Dr. Daniel Cooper, the team doctor for the Dallas Cowboys, and it was discovered then that the work from his previous surgery at Iowa needed to be undone and the knee rebuilt. It cost him to miss not only the remainder of his rookie season but also the entire 2025 season.

“Pretty much they just had to take out everything that Iowa did, and I had to wait for all that to heal, so that means like everything was still torn, nothing got fixed, really,” All said. “To be honest, they kind of made it worse, because the problem, the reason why it tore was because the outside of my knee was like unstable and the tissue was dying from the surgery before, like I didn't heal right. So, it was real weak on the outside and then that put stress on my ACL, and it tore.”

All said Dr. Cooper and his team took apart what had been previously done to his knee, and then he needed to let that heal for about three months before he could even have the ACL reconstruction.

Once he finally had that surgery, it was still a nine-month recovery.

“Everything went smooth, and then you know, Dr. Cooper, he's legit, so everything feels fine,” All said. “I feel completely stable, my legs are strong.”

All said he got through it with the help of his faith in Jesus Christ, wanting to support his family now that he has two young boys and just because of his love for football.

The biggest thing for him now is having that chance to play again. All said he feels like he could go out and play a game tomorrow if the Bengals had one, but he hasn’t been officially cleared in full just as a precaution because there is no need to rush at this point.

If or when All does get back to competition, he’ll be a bonus for Bengals coach Zac Taylor and the offense. All was the team’s most complete tight end in what he could provide to both the run and passing games.

“To have the significance of the injuries that he's had, to miss a whole season - an extra season really, half of the first one and then the whole second one, it's been challenging for him,” Taylor said. “I think he's handled it really well. Now we're in the progression phase, getting back on the field with no contact or anything right now. We'll assess training camp as it gets closer, but it's been really good to get him on the field, have him back in the walkthroughs. I think mentally for him that's probably been really helpful, just not sitting over there doing the rehab things. He's got an attitude that you just love. He loves football, that's really clear. He's passionate about it. To be able to get him back out there working with the guys has been big for all of us.”

Although there’s still the fear of another injury, All wants to show he can still make an impact for his team. What a comeback that would be.

“(The goal is to show) that they can rely on me and that I can get back and do the same things I did at an even height or better pace,” All said. “I want to show that I'm gonna be better than I was, and I improved, that I'm gonna come back and be a dawg that they need me to be.”

NEW YORK — Aaron Judge wouldn’t change a thing.

The Yankees’ captain, placed on the 10-day injured list with a stress fracture of his first right rib, spoke to reporters on Friday for the first time since the team revealed he was dealing with an injury scare on Tuesday. That revelation included the fact that Judge had been playing through nagging discomfort for weeks before his pain worsened in Sacramento last weekend, prompting several rounds of imaging and multiple consultations with doctors after an initial MRI, obscured by swelling, found a bone bruise on Monday.

“We did everything we could to make sure we could be out there, and in Sacramento, it just got a little worse,” Judge said. “I fought as long as I could.”

Asked about playing through an injury that now requires four to six weeks before he can even be reimaged, Judge said he felt a need to be in the lineup with a few other Yankees stars already on the IL.

“Big G’s hurt,” he said, referring to Giancarlo Stanton. “Max Fried’s hurt. We have a lot of guys banged up. You gotta be out there. That’s what they’re paying me to do, is to go out there and play.”

Judge said that he started feeling symptoms after making an awkward dive in Houston at the end of April. He mentioned trying to avoid a teammate on the play, and that symptoms, including shoulder issues, began during the Yankees’ next series in Texas against the Rangers.

A fifth-inning dive that Judge made on April 26 against the Astros matches his description; he had to avoid Jazz Chisholm Jr. in shallow right field.

Judge, who fractured the same rib in a similar spot in 2019, also crashed hard into Yankee Stadium’s right field wall on a third-inning catch against Baltimore on May 3.

“That probably didn’t help,” he said, though he thinks the culmination of all his hitting, diving, throwing, etc. added more stress to his injury and made it worse.

Brian Cashman said it “probably” did as well, but also that “there’s nothing that led us to believe” Judge was dealing with anything significant prior to Sacramento.

“I don’t think there’s anything that anybody could have done, from player to trainer to club to doctor, or whatever, to determine that, ‘Hey, there’s something going on here that’s smoldering,” Cashman continued.

Judge said that he did not communicate his symptoms to manager Aaron Boone until the Yankees’ series in Sacramento, but that the team’s training staff was previously aware.

Boone said that he knew Judge was getting treatment before that series, but players get treatment for minor things all the time, and the right fielder’s injury didn’t become a noticeable issue to the skipper until Sacramento.

Cashman, meanwhile, said that he was not aware of an issue until he got a call from Mike Schuk, the Yankees’ director of sports medicine and rehabilitation, on Monday. Schuk suggested doing imaging on Judge.

“Prior to [Monday], really, it was not on anybody’s radar in any way, shape or form,” Cashman said, offering a somewhat different version of events. “It developed a little bit in the manager-player conversation in Sacramento at the tail end of that series, but prior to that, it really was not on anybody’s radar, from player to trainers to front office.”

The general manager added, “These guys are super sapiens. They’re unbelievable about how they can withstand more [pain] than you and I maybe can withstand,” but Judge’s injury clearly compromised him at the plate as he continued to play.

The back-to-back MVP hit .160 with a .550 OPS and one homer over his last 16 games and .207 with a .649 OPS and two dingers over his last 22 games.

“I just couldn’t swing the way I wanted to,” Judge said, “and Sacramento was the worst, so I definitely felt it in the swing.”

Now the Yankees, trying to win their first championship since 2009, will be without their best player for an unspecified amount of time.

Cashman said the team is “intentionally” avoiding a timetable for Judge, which is just the way the player likes it.

“I don’t like talking timetables,” Judge said. “That stuff’s all made up, so you never know what’s gonna happen.”

The good news is that the Yankees do expect Judge back at some point. Boone and Cashman reiterated that on Friday.

For now, Judge is shut down from baseball activities. He can’t do much above the waist, so that means no throwing, hitting or anything overhead. Judge did say that he can do lower body exercises — he has worked out in the weight room this week — and that he will keep his legs fresh and track as many pitches as possible.

Cashman said Judge can also do cardiovascular work on stationary bikes.

But as for a return to game action?

“That question gets best answered,” Cashman said, “when we get past the imaging and the doctor’s interpretation that he’s good to start baseball activities and conditioning and stuff like that.”