New Orleans Saints star wide receiver Michael Thomas is expected to have several surgeries this offseason to repair his injured ankle.
Thomas suffered a torn deltoid and injured several other ligaments this season. According to sources, Thomas played through the injury because he wanted to be a part of quarterback Drew Brees’ last season and try to win a Super Bowl with him.
Brees is expected to retire this offseason after a 20-year career.
Thomas is expected to recover from the surgeries in time for summer OTAs and should be ready to start Week 1 of the 2021 season.
The star receiver suffered the initial high ankle injury in Week 1 and missed a total of nine games before coming back, even though he clearly wasn’t completely healthy. Thomas often didn’t practice the entire week and then played games with the help of pain medication.
He went back on the injured reserve for Weeks 15-17 in an effort to get ready for the playoffs. The Saints were able to defeat the Chicago Bears in the first round of the playoffs but fell to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers last week, a game in which Thomas had zero catches on four targets.
Thomas set an NFL record in 2019 with 149 catches in the regular season. In 2020, he only had 40 catches for 438 yards and no touchdowns.
