Detroit Lions defensive end Aidan Hutchinson was taken off the field on a cart due to a serious injury to his left tibia while tackling Dallas quarterback Dak Prescott.
After the Lions’ big win over the Cowboys, coach Dan Campbell mentioned that Hutchinson would stay in the Dallas area for surgery.
The injury occurred in the third quarter when Hutchinson’s leg seemed to break above the ankle after hitting the leg of his teammate, Alim McNeill, while bringing down Prescott.
“I haven’t seen it myself so I couldn’t really tell,” McNeill said. “I didn’t know if it was him or not, but I did feel somebody like leg-whip me, and then I see Hutch down. That’s wild to see. I hate that for him.”
At the time of Hutchinson’s injury, the Lions were leading 34-6. Hutchinson had entered the game as the NFL leader in sacks with 6 1/2.
There was a delay of about 10 minutes as medical staff attended to Hutchinson while players from both teams formed a circle around him.
After he was put onto the cart with a cast on his leg, both his teammates and Dallas players reached over to comfort the 24-year-old. Hutchinson had recorded the Lions’ third sack of the game, while McNeill had the first two.
“That’s hard for everybody when you’re standing there and that’s one of yours and something like that happens,” Campbell said. “If you dwell on that too much and you start playing a little timid, that’s when you get hurt. So guys snapped right back in and they lived in the moment where we’re on.”
Prescott, who fell on top of Hutchinson’s left leg during the injury, had a similar injury to his right leg on the same field in 2020, which ended his season.
Dallas’ star quarterback tried to offer Hutchinson some words of encouragement as he was being taken off the field.
“It’s just something that I felt in the moment,” Prescott said. “I’ll probably get his number from one of the Michigan guys in the locker room and reach out again. … When you’re in that, it’s blurry. So I don’t even know if he heard them. Don’t care if he heard them. I understand where he was.”
