NEED TO KNOW

• Patrick Mahomes injured his knee during the Dec. 14 Kansas City Chiefs match against the Los Angeles Chargers 
• The quarterback underwent surgery the following day to repair a torn ACL and LCL
• Orthopedic surgeon Dr. Yair Kissin talks to PEOPLE about the quarterback's torn ACL and possible recovery timeline

In the final two minutes of the Kansas City Chiefs’ Dec. 14 game against the Los Angeles Chargers, Patrick Mahomes went down in pain, clutching his left knee. Following an MRI, the team later confirmed that the quarterback, 30, suffered a torn ACL.

Just one day later, Mahomes underwent surgery to repair his ACL, and, according to multiple outlets, he also needed a repair for a torn LCL.

The ACL is the common abbreviation for the "anterior cruciate ligament" in the knee while LCL refers to the “lateral collateral ligament” in the knee.

In an interview with PEOPLE, Dr. Yair Kissin — vice chairman of the department of orthopedic surgery at Hackensack University Medical Center — broke down Mahomes’ injury and what can be expected with his recovery. 

After reviewing the game footage, Kissin explains that although Mahomes was tackled by Chargers defensive lineman Da'Shawn Hand, the quarterback’s injury was seemingly non-contact and occurred when his leg locked while trying to avoid the tackle.

“There was another player nearby but nobody contacted that knee,” he tells PEOPLE. “So it's probably classified as non-contact, which most ACL tears are, where his foot plants and the rest of him keeps going. And unfortunately that's the common way for tearing ACLs, especially in football — a quarterback changes directions quite a bit.”

“Also if you see how his knee kind of bows out, where it goes outward, then that would put stress on the LCL as well,” he says, adding that an ACL and LCL tear “makes 100% sense.”

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Kissin — who did not treat Mahomes — says that when he deals with his own athlete patients, he would typically perform an ACL repair surgery in a week or two after the injury occurred in order to allow swelling to subside. Performing the surgery with heavy swelling can be like a “second trauma” to the knee and result in a longer and more difficult recovery, he notes.

However, the surgeon explains that professional athletes are “on a different time schedule than every other human,” which is likely why Mahomes had the surgery just one day after the injury.

“They have a multimillion dollar contract, they have to get well as soon as possible. So it's definitely not considered malpractice or wrong to do early surgery,” he says. “But doing it as quickly as he had it done is actually pretty widely accepted because you don't really allow that initial inflammatory response to happen.” 

After surgery, recovery for a torn ACL takes nine to 12 months. Kissim says the timeline typically begins with athletes on crutches for four to six weeks and working on range of motion for the first two to three months.

He says patients will then start strengthening before beginning more sport-specific activities. According to Kissim, while nine months is the baseline, Mahomes’ LCL tear could extend his recovery.

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“Now add a second ligament or another injury like he had, sometimes you want to examine the patient's overall alignment and if their weightbearing is going to stress that LCL,” he explains. “And if he weight bears, he's going to put stress on that LCL repair and then that could stretch [the recovery] out. So, maybe he'll be on crutches for a little longer.” 

Kissim tells PEOPLE that with Mahomes having access to the equipment and resources that come with being a high-level professional athlete, he’s off to a better start than most.

But the surgeon stresses that the NFL star still has a long road to recovery, regardless of his athleticism.

“Nobody's super human,” Kissim says. “Yeah, we think that way when we see them on TV, but at the same time, just because a person is healthy and athletic doesn't necessarily mean they heal faster.” 

“I think that sometimes the misconception that we have about some of these super athletes is that they're super human. But they're human just like the rest of us,” he continues. “Yes, like I said, professional athletes have a different perhaps, motivation and intensity, but their timeline may not be different from most people.” 

Read the original article on People