Biggest sports injuries this week: Victor Osimhen, Brandon Ingram, Quenton Nelson and more across the NFL, NBA, NHL, MLB and soccer

Here’s the new board: five sports, 14 athletes, and what each injury teaches the rest of us. Most names are new since our November 5 scoreboard. Two are back from earlier boards because something real changed, and we say what.

We have no connection with these athletes or teams and haven’t examined them. Everything here comes from public reports as of Saturday, November 7, 2026, and status can change quickly.

The biggest sports injuries this week: the scoreboard

Athlete	Team	League	Injury as reported	Reported status
Kelvin Banks Jr.	Saints	NFL	High ankle sprain (Sept. 20)	Ankle surgery in September; back at limited practice since Nov. 4; questionable for Nov. 8 (Nov. 6)[8,15]
Quenton Nelson	Seahawks	NFL	Knee; cartilage to be cleaned out	Set for a “minor” knee procedure; ruled out for Nov. 8; week to week, not on injured reserve (Nov. 6)[2]
Javon Kinlaw	Commanders	NFL	MCL, a knee ligament (Week 6)	Season-ending knee surgery (reported Nov. 4)[9]
Vít Krejčí	Trail Blazers	NBA	Fracture, lower left leg or ankle; team listed a left ankle fracture	Hurt Nov. 4; surgery not yet decided; out Nov. 6 (Nov. 5)[4,16]
Brandon Ingram	Clippers	NBA	Right heel; partially torn Achilles tendon	Surgery in May; full-contact practice, no return date (Nov. 6)[10,3]
Josh Hart	Knicks	NBA	Sore right ankle	Out Nov. 7, his second straight missed game (Nov. 6)[17]
Ivan Demidov	Canadiens	NHL	Fractured ankle in the preseason, per his agent	No setbacks and no exact return date, his general manager said (reported Nov. 6)[5,18,19]
Jonathan Huberdeau	Flames	NHL	Hip; surgery in March	Skated in a regular jersey Nov. 6; still on injured reserve, no timeline (Nov. 7)[11]
Ryan Gravenberch	Liverpool	EPL	Heel fracture (per his manager, Nov. 3)	Out of the Netherlands squad; day to day for Nov. 8 (Nov. 6)[20,21]
Éder Militão	Real Madrid	La Liga	Torn upper biceps femoris (hamstring) tendon, left leg (April 21)	Had surgery; played 90 minutes in his first start back (reported Nov. 7)[12]
Giovanni Di Lorenzo	Napoli	Serie A	Left adductor longus strain (inner thigh)	Out for Nov. 8; no recovery time given (Nov. 6)[22]
Maghnes Akliouche	Paris Saint-Germain	Ligue 1	Calf	Out for Nov. 7 and left out of the France squad (Nov. 6)[23,24]
Victor Osimhen	Galatasaray	Süper Lig	Left knee strain vs. Stuttgart (Nov. 3); MRI found a loose fragment	Arthroscopic knee surgery Nov. 7[25,1]
Orkun Kökçü	Beşiktaş	Süper Lig	Partial plantar fascia tear and heel fat pad separation, right foot	Came off the bench and scored Nov. 5 (Nov. 5)[6,7]

NFL injuries: an ankle repair nears a return, and two knees

Kelvin Banks Jr. was hurt Sept. 20 when a pass rusher landed on his lower leg. New Orleans said he had a procedure to repair a high ankle sprain, with recovery expected to stretch into early December.^[8] A high ankle sprain hurts the ligaments that join the two lower-leg bones, the tibia and fibula.^[26] He was limited in practice all week, and Friday’s team injury report listed him as questionable for Sunday against Cleveland.^[15]

Quenton Nelson had a knee problem before his trade to Seattle, and it got worse after he arrived. His coach called the fix a “minor procedure,” and sources told NFL Network it will clean out cartilage. He is week to week and was not placed on injured reserve.^[2] Washington’s Javon Kinlaw hurt the MCL, a ligament on the inside of the knee, in Week 6 and had season-ending knee surgery.^[9]

The lesson: A repair can put a badly sprained ankle back on the field. In a review of elite athletes with high ankle sprains, a general number and not a forecast for Banks, all 171 who had surgery returned to sport, at a mean of about seven weeks.^[13] Surgery may be recommended when a high sprain leaves the joint between those two bones unstable.^[26] See our ankle sprains page.

NBA injuries: a broken ankle, a heel surgery comeback and a sore ankle

Vít Krejčí stepped in to take a charge in Wednesday’s win at Phoenix and fell hard. His coach confirmed a fracture in the lower left leg or ankle but did not yet know which bone or whether surgery was needed. Krejčí left the arena on crutches in a protective boot.^[4] Portland’s injury listing for Friday called it a left ankle fracture.^[16]

Brandon Ingram had surgery on his right heel in May, and doctors found and treated a partially torn Achilles tendon during the same operation.^[10] On Friday, he had progressed to full-contact basketball and said he is close, with no debut date set.^[3] The Knicks’ Josh Hart was ruled out of Saturday’s game, the second he has missed with a sore right ankle.^[17]

The lesson: A broken ankle can be put back together. Ankle fractures with a dislocation usually need surgery, while breaks where the bones stay in place may not.^[27] In a review of 1,422 athletes with ankle fractures, most treated with surgery to fix the bones, 87.1% returned to sport, at an average of 134.5 days.^[28] That is a group number, not a forecast for Krejčí. See our fractures and trauma page.

NHL and MLB injuries: an ankle fracture revealed and a hip surgery comeback

Ivan Demidov fractured his ankle in the preseason and played two regular-season games on it, his agent said. Montreal has called it a lower-body injury.^[5,18] His general manager said this week that Demidov has had no setbacks, but he could not give an exact return date.^[18,19]

Jonathan Huberdeau had hip surgery in March and has not played this season after a setback. He skated in a regular jersey Friday, but his coach said there is no timeline.^[11]

Baseball is in its offseason. We found no new hip-down surgery for a notable player reported since November 4.

The lesson: Hip surgery often gets hockey players back. In a study of 75 NHL players who had hip arthroscopy, a camera-guided operation through small cuts, 88% returned to play.^[29] That is a general number, not a forecast for Huberdeau. See our sports medicine page.

Soccer injuries: EPL, La Liga, Serie A, Ligue 1 and the Süper Lig

We checked the biggest clubs in every major league. Clubs with no notable new injury below the hip are left off.

EPL: Liverpool’s manager said Nov. 3 that Ryan Gravenberch has a heel fracture and the issue is pain.^[20] What’s new: he was left out of the Netherlands squad, and his manager called him the club’s only doubt for Sunday, day to day.^[21]

La Liga: Real Madrid’s Éder Militão tore the upper tendon of his left biceps femoris, one of the hamstring muscles, in April and traveled to Finland for surgery. He started and played the full 90 minutes in this week’s Champions League win at AEK Athens.^[12] In the most severe hamstring injuries, the tendon pulls away from the bone, and surgery is most often done for those tears.^[30]

Serie A: Napoli captain Giovanni Di Lorenzo strained the long adductor muscle of his left inner thigh, according to a club medical report. He will miss Sunday’s match against Lazio, and Napoli gave no recovery time.^[22]

Ligue 1: PSG’s Maghnes Akliouche picked up a calf injury in this week’s Champions League win over Villarreal, the AP reported. He will miss Saturday’s match and was left out of the France squad.^[23,24]

Süper Lig: Galatasaray’s Victor Osimhen strained his left knee against Stuttgart on Tuesday, and an MRI found a loose fragment.^[1,25] He had arthroscopic surgery Saturday, which the club called successful.^[1] Beşiktaş captain Orkun Kökçü had a partial tear of the plantar fascia and a separation of the heel fat pad in his right foot.^[6] The plantar fascia is the strong band under the foot that links the heel to the front of the foot.^[31] What’s new: he came off the bench and scored at Celtic on Thursday.^[7]

The lesson: A torn hamstring tendon can be fixed. In a review of proximal hamstring repairs, a general number and not a forecast for Militão, elite athletes returned to sport 95.6% of the time, within 3 to 7 months, and 90% to 98.4% got back to their old level.^[14] Heel pain after a hard landing deserves an exam. See our heel pain page.

The pattern across leagues: the ankle and foot keep showing up

Seven of the 14 athletes on our board hurt an ankle, heel or foot. That fits the research.

• Football players feel it first. Over four NFL seasons, a player had a 41% chance of a time-loss lower-body injury each season. The ankle made up 22.4% of those injuries and the foot 9.1%, and high ankle sprains were among the five most common.^[32]
• Sprains come back in soccer. In elite men’s soccer, outside ankle sprains cost about 15 days on average, and about 17% recurred.^[33]

These are group numbers, not a forecast for any athlete named here.

What to know about the limits: Recovery takes time and isn’t certain. In the high ankle sprain review, 9.1% of surgical patients had a complication, and athletes treated without surgery returned about three weeks sooner on average.^[13] The most severe ankle fractures took up to 720 days to return.^[28] After hamstring repair, 11.6% of elite athletes had a complication, most often nerve symptoms.^[14] NHL players’ performance dipped the season after hip arthroscopy before returning to baseline three seasons later.^[29]

What this means for you

You don’t need a pro contract to break an ankle or tear a hamstring. At least 6 of the 14 athletes on our board reportedly had surgery.^{[8,9,10,11,12,1]} In our sports medicine practice, Dr. Efe Ozturk, a Foot and Ankle Surgeon and podiatrist, starts with an exam. Seeing a surgeon early keeps every option open. With in-office X-ray and ultrasound, bone and ligament can often be checked in one visit, and we arrange an MRI when needed.

Dr. Ozturk performs foot and ankle surgery, including fracture repair and ankle ligament repair, through our Center for Lower Extremity Surgery (external site). We see patients at our Lyndhurst, Paramus and Millburn offices for ankle sprains, fractures and heel pain. Please call our office at 908-215-5953 to inquire about your insurance.

Common questions

How long does a broken ankle take to heal for athletes?

In a review of 17 studies of athletes, most treated with surgery, the average return to sport was 134.5 days, about four and a half months. Breaks in two or three places took longer.^[28]

Does a high ankle sprain need surgery?

Many do not. Surgery may be recommended when the joint between the two lower-leg bones is unstable.^[26] In elite athletes who had it, every one of 171 returned to sport.^[13]

How long is recovery from hamstring tendon surgery?

In elite athletes, return to sport after a proximal hamstring repair took 3 to 7 months in the studies reviewed.^[14]

When to see a Foot and Ankle Surgeon