Two Chiefs players set to undergo surgery this week

It’s never good when Kansas City Chiefs head athletic trainer Rick Burkholder takes the podium prior to an Andy Reid press conference, and that’s exactly what we got on Wednesday at Arrowhead Stadium. It turns out that right guard Laurent Durvernay-Tardif and rookie safety Armani Watts will need to undergo surgery for their injuries.

Watch Burkholder below, courtesy of Chiefs dot com reporter Matt McMullen:

Burkholder on RG Laurent Durvernay-Tardif

“We told you after the game he has a fracture fibula—he does. But after we reviewed the film and got to examine him the next day—he had some ankle pain, so we did an MRI. He has what’s known as a Maisonneuve injury. Now, Larry will tell you that it’s pronounced differently than that. And basically what happens there is his ankle gets externally rotated. The force tears ligaments in his ankle and runs up the leg and then breaks his fibula. So he’s going to have that repaired by Dr. Bob Anderson in Green Bay, Wisconsin, on Monday. We’ll know more after the surgery how much time he’ll miss.”

Reid added the injury to Duvernay-Tardif was a little worse than the Chiefs originally thought when he said that he’d be back in a few weeks. It’s my understanding that there are no guarantee we see Duvernay-Tardif the rest of the season.

Burkholder on S Armani Watts

“As you remember, last Wednesday, he reported a groin injury, he played in the game somewhat, and then when he dove for the ball in the end zone and broke up the pass, he did some more damage. We did another MRI on him and determined that he has a core muscle injury that needs to be repaired, so he will go. He’s in Philadelphia [Wednesday] visiting Dr. Bill Myers and he’ll be operated on [Thursday].”

As we noted Tuesday, both players have been added to the Chiefs’ injured reserve list.