The New Orleans Saints are preparing for wide receiver Michael Thomas to enter the 2023 season fully healthy after toe and ankle injuries limited him to 10 regular-season games over the past three years.
Thomas had surgery in 2021 to repair a torn deltoid and other ligaments in his left ankle after he was injured in the 2020 season opener. He also needed surgery in 2022 after he dislocated the second toe on his right foot in the third game of the 2022 season.
Thomas said one of the issues with the surgeries was the way his body failed to respond to the hardware inserted to help him heal.
"I don't want to use this as an excuse," Thomas told ESPN. "But also, when you get surgeries and they put hardware in, sometimes your body rejects the hardware."
When asked if he meant his ankle, Thomas specified it happened twice, slowing down the healing process.
"With both," he said.
He added: "Your body responds and healing responds to it. Whatever, I guess is, the 1%? I guess I'm in that category."
Thomas tried to rehab his ankle without surgery in the 2021 offseason and had surgery in June of 2021 when it failed to respond. He did not play that season after he had what was initially described as a "small setback" following the surgery.
The Saints thought initially that Thomas could come back from the toe injury without surgery after he went down on Sept. 25, but put him on injured reserve in November with the conclusion that he needed surgery. The hardware in his toe was removed in the offseason, according to Saints coach Dennis Allen, putting him on track to fully return to practice at the start of training camp.
Saints quarterbacks coach Ronald Curry, who was Thomas' wide receivers coach from 2018 to 2020, described the response after the ankle injury as a "stress reaction" to the hardware.
"He did nothing wrong, his body just didn't react to the surgeries like it should have," Curry told ESPN.