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Published on 08/20/2008 at Wed Aug 20 14:58.
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Nalen to Have 2nd Knee Surgery

Posted Wed Aug 20th by

Tom Nalen

In what is being called “nothing serious” by Denver Broncos Head Coach Mike Shanahan, veteran center Tom Nalen will undergo arthroscopic knee surgery for the second time in two months. Nalen is expected to miss the rest of the preseason after returning to practice Monday.

“What we are going to do is have Tom get his knee cleaned up a little bit — more preventative than anything else,” Shanahan said. “It hasn’t healed the way we would have liked.”

“Hopefully it’s nothing serious and can alleviate some of the swelling and the pain and hopefully he is ready to go by the first game.”

Casey Wiegmann, a new addition via free agency from the Kansas City Chiefs, will continue to start in Nalen’s place. Remarkably, if all goes well, Nalen will still be available for our Week 1 match against the Oakland Raiders.

Wiegmann has done a very good job covering for Nalen in the preseason thus far, but we’re still a better team with Tommy Nails in the lineup. Maybe I’m biased – he is my favorite Bronco besides John Elway, after all – but I find that my thinking and my feelings are very similar to those I had in ’99. The plain truth of it all is staring at me straight in the face, but all I can do is look away, hoping my guy has a year or two left in him. So I’m crossing my fingers that this surgery is the final step Nalen needs to get healthy, and back on the field.

  • http://www.broncotalk.net Jonathan Douglas

    “Hopefully it’s nothing serious” doesn’t sound good, my friend. I hate to say it, but I think we might be seeing the last days of Tom Nalen in a Bronco’s uniform.

    That said, I really hope he’s healthy enough to at least play a limited role this year. I truly believe we’re going to need him out there on 08.

    Let’s hope for the best.

  • andy b.

    Kyle,
    I feel a little bad making such a bummer posting the same day we’re apparently paying tribute to you for the site– but I have to agree with Jonathan. It’s time for the Broncotalk readership to start concocting ways to let you down easy with regard to Mr. Nalen. Maybe some sort of intervention?
    I agree of course that any contribution we can get will be awesome– but I also hate to see beloved players go through this long, slow march to eventual forced retirement. Rod Smith’s injury march to retirement was absolutely excruciating to watch and I sure would like to avoid a repeat of that for another beloved Bronco legend.

  • kerry

    Weigmann has been playing excellent and Nails has aslready had a knee surgery and is having another one. when the Monday night game rolls around who do you go with? the guy who is playing or the guy who just had 2 knee surgeries in the span of a couple months? i hate to say it because i love Nails but you gotta go with the guy that is on a roll. and Weigmann has been like a wall out there. my prediction for the starting O-line come Monday night against Oakland is this: LT Clady, LG Hamilton, C Weigmann, RG Kuper, RT Harris. sorry but i dont think Nalen will be ready and i dont think Holland can overtake Kuper with the way Kuper has been playing. and Harris has been very good at RT since overcoming his first start jitters. th line is showing cohesiveness and there is no reason to tweak it when there is nothing wrong.