ARLINGTON, Texas -- The Detroit Lions are off to a 4-1 start to the season with a dominant, 47-9 victory against the Dallas Cowboys, but they have lost one of the NFL's best defensive players to a serious injury.
The club announced on Monday that Pro Bowl edge rusher Aidan Hutchinson underwent successful surgery to repair a fractured tibia and fibula at Baylor White Medical Center in Irving Texas on Sunday night. He will return to Detroit at some point this week and is expected to make a full recovery, but there is no timeline for his return to play currently.
Hutchinson, who entered Week 6 leading the NFL in sacks (6.5), QB hits (14) and QB pressures (40), went down with a lower leg injury after sacking Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott on a second-and-5 play. Detroit's entire team went out on to the field to comfort its defensive leader before he was stretchered off the AT&T Stadium turf. The team immediately ruled him out for the remainder of the game.
"Hate it for Hutch. That's tough," head coach Dan Campbell said. after the game. "It was tough. He's in good hands right now. He's being taken care of. He'll stay back here, and obviously he's going to be down a little while, so that's tough, and it's hard when you lose somebody like him. We'll know a lot more after this and obviously wish him the best."
The injury was significant enough where Fox made the decision not to broadcast a replay of what happened. Hutchinson appeared to know immediately when he hit the turf that the worst had happened.
In the aftermath of Hutchinson going down, there was an optimistic report from The Detroit News that noted the edge rusher avoided a "worst-case scenario" with the injury. While the team did not place a timeline for his return, this report did note the potential for Hutchinson to return to play in the Super Bowl, should the Lions reach that game.