The Raiders are hopeful that Christian Wilkins will be in uniform this year, but the news around his injured foot hasn’t been encouraging since it was first reported in April that he suffered a significant setback to his foot sometime around February.
In May, league insider Tony Pauline reported that Wilkins may need another surgery and according to Raiders Report’ host Mitchell Renz, doctors have recommended that Wilkins have another surgery.
“Christian Wilkins needs another surgery and could be out the entire season,” Renz said on Chat Sports’ Raiders Report.
“I had a source reach out to me yesterday… and unfortunately dropped this horrific news on my plate,” Renz continued. “Here’s what I know as it stands right now. Wilkins does, in fact, need another surgery… there has been speculation, there has been rumors, there has been multiple stories around Wilkins needing another surgery.”
Renz added that he has heard Wilkins does not want to have another surgery, but the Raiders’ medical team is advising him to have surgery and avoid the potential for further damage to his foot.
Beat writers and league insiders have mostly stayed away from Renz’s report, but it’s noteworthy that no one has denied or tried to discredit the report.
One member of the Raiders’ media team that has discussed Wilkins’ injury since Renz’s comments is Raider Nation Radio host Q Myers, and Myers didn’t sound very optimistic this week, while acknowledging that he doesn’t know exactly what is going on with Wilkins’ foot.
“This is probably the biggest news… to pay attention to, and it’s something that we’ve been really focusing on and paying attention to a lot throughout the course of the offseason,” Myers said this week on the Locked on Raiders podcast. “When they had OTAs, when they had mandatory minicamp, that is the health of one Christian Wilkins, the big fellow.”
“The big man in the middle signed his big free agent deal last year… and only played five games and then went down with the Jones Fracture, had the surgery and it’s been challenging. It’s been difficult, it’s been frustrating at times. [Those are] Pete Carroll’s words, not mine, when it comes to recovery for Christian Wilkins,” Myers continued.
“A week or so ago, he was at Kyle Van Noy’s Charity Golf Challenge, and he took a picture with Van Noy and also his teammate Jonah Laulu, who took the picture hit social media and it had Christian Wilkins in the walking boot… To me, this feels like a situation where Christian Wilkins is probably going to open up training camp on the PUP List. Now, again, he’s around town. He’s not at the, you know, it’s not like he’s at the facility practicing or anything like that.”
“They’re being very cautious with it by having a walking boot on it… it makes sense. They’re trying to protect it. But just the more and more I see, you know, pictures of him and see that walking boot and know what I saw or didn’t see at mandatory minicamp when it came to Christian Wilkins and also listening to the words of head coach Pete Carroll, there’s definitely some big-time concern when it comes to the big fellow.”
Myers might have inside information being in the position he’s in with the team’s flagship radio station, but he said he’s only speculating on Wilkins’ health based on what he has witnessed…
“This is not something that I’m hearing. I’m not reporting that he’s going to start the training camp on the PUP List,” Myers said. “I’m saying my gut feeling is that he’s going to start the training camp on the PUP List.”
