Scrolling through injury updates following the Chief’s Xavier Worthy week one injury vs the Chargers, most articles reported a shoulder dislocation, however a few news outlets reported it as a shoulder separation. Why does this matter? If you’re a fantasy owner, frantically googling Worthy’s injury to figure out how significant this is for your team, you’d better be searching the right thing.
Let’s break it down:
Shoulder Dislocation
A shoulder dislocation involves the ball and socket joint between the upper arm and the shoulder blade. These injuries usually happen when the arm is reaching up and out to the side. When the shoulder dislocates, the ball pops out of the joint, damaging the structures around the rim of the socket whose job it is to hold that ball in place. Once a player has dislocated once, it is highly likely that they have repeat dislocations and do more damage. This is an injury many guys rehab and play through in-season, but the analytics show that surgery is the best option for minimizing the chance of repeat dislocations and increased damage. Many players will elect to do a shoulder stabilization surgery in their offseason to get back closer to peak performance.
Shoulder separation
Unlike a dislocation, a shoulder separation doesn’t happen at the ball and socket joint, it happens higher up on the shoulder at what’s called the acromioclavicular, or AC joint. The AC joint is where the end of the collarbone meets the shoulder blade. The AC joint is frequently injured by athletes landing directly on the shoulder, or in hits like a hockey player going shoulder first into the boards. The impact typically forces the end of the collarbone to pop up, causing a visible bump called a “step deformity”. Most AC separations can be treated by the team Athletic Trainers with rehab and tape, so athletes can play as soon as they regain their range of motion and strength. Repeat hits to the shoulder might increase the size of the bump on the shoulder, but don’t tend to cause the major structural damage that repeated true shoulder dislocations do.
To sum it up, athletes with shoulder dislocations and separations both have the possibility of same season return. However, higher chances of repeat injury, increased damage, and likelihood of future surgery make shoulder dislocations a much bigger deal.
