Drew Brees has torn plantar fascia in right foot

Despite being in a significant amount of pain and his team being out of the playoff race, New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees wants to play Sunday against the Jacksonville Jaguars.

An MRI revealed that the right foot injury Brees sustained on Monday night against the Detroit Lions is a torn plantar fascia, NFL Network's Albert Breer reported. The plantar fascia is the flat band of tissue that connects the heel bone to the base of the toes.

On Wednesday, Saints coach Sean Payton told reporters that Brees is day-to-day. However, Ian Rapoport, also of NFL Network, tweeted the following, making it sound as though it will be a long shot for Brees to suit up against the Jaguars.


As a sidenote, Payton told Jacksonville reporters on a conference call that he expects both he and Brees to be back in New Orleans next season. That would be a surprise, particularly for Payton. The Saints' defense is a mess, and unlikely to get markedly better in one offseason, and if he opted out of his deal with the team, Payton would be a hot commodity. It's not hard to imagine a marriage between Payton and the Indianapolis Colts, which would pair an offensive-minded coach with one of the best young quarterbacks in the game, Andrew Luck.

It seems unlikely that New Orleans would part ways with Brees, but the team and its franchise quarterback will have to do some major negotiating – Brees' salary cap number for 2016, the final year of his contract, is $30 million, and the Saints could use the relief.

Saints' Drew Brees day-to-day with torn plantar fascia

Saints quarterback Drew Brees became the fourth quarterback in NFL history with 60,000 passing yards on Monday night, but his ability to continue up the ladder in 2015 will be complicated by a foot injury.

After the loss to the Lions, Brees said that he would have an MRI on his right foot due to an injury suffered during the game that left him wearing a protective boot. Ed Werder of ESPN reports that the test showed a torn plantar fascia and that Brees wants to play in the final two games, but is still waiting an evaluation from Charlotte-based foot specialist Dr. Robert Anderson.

If the report is accurate, that would mean two of the four passers with more than 60,000 yards would be in contact with Anderson about similar injuries. Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning is dealing with a partially torn plantar fascia and may need surgery to repair the issue.

Injuries affect different people in different ways, but Manning’s been out for several weeks so there’s some chance that Brees may have played his last down for the Saints this season. With talk about Sean Payton’s future, or lack thereof, in New Orleans a background topic for much of the year and Brees carrying a huge cap number for a team that needs help at many positions this off season, some will likely wonder if he’ll play any for them next season.

Clijsters injures herself while dancing at nephew’s wedding

A tip for all women's tennis players: Don't go to Western Europe and expect to make it out healthy.

For the second time in nine months, a top-ranked women's player suffered a freak accident in a Western European country that will force her to miss a major part of the tennis season. Serena Williams stepped on a piece of broken glass before an exhibition match in Munich last July and hasn't been on the court since. Recently, Kim Clijsters was dancing at the wedding of her nephew and turned her ankle, an injury which could force her out of next month's French Open.

Clijsters revealed the news on her website (translated from Dutch):
At the wedding party of her cousin Tim, Kim injured her ankle severely. The consequences are rather dire. After a visit to the doctor, echo and NMR the diagnosis is a severe strain of both the medial and lateral ligaments of the right ankle and a torn ligaments, a torn capsule of the ankle joint, a hematoma and torn tendon sheath.

The statement goes on to say that Clijsters' foot is immobilized and that she'll miss six weeks. Her presence at Roland Garros is "very uncertain." The four-time Grand Slam champion is also said to be recovering from a previous wrist injury.
That must have been one funky chicken.

What is it about that part of the map that puts our biggest stars into walking boots when they leave? Is there some sort of national conspiracy to get Yanina Wickmayer to the top of the rankings? Is there a Walloon-Flemish beef that I don't know about?
You'd have to figure that Clijsters is pretty good on her feet, given that she's a champion tennis player with flawless footwork. If me and my herky-jerk, Elaine-style dance moves can make it through a wedding unscathed, imagine the bad luck Clijsters had to get her hurt. Also, how bad do you feel for her nephew?

"How was your wedding, Tim?"

"Oh, pretty good. Other than my aunt suffering a catastrophic injury that might alter the course of her career. Got a cool waffle maker, though."