Zach Ertz has been diagnosed with a displaced first-rib. It’s not a fracture. Here’s Doug explaining exactly what that means:

https://twitter.com/PhillySportLive/status/775383073684848641

Jeff McLane said it’s not season ending but “significant.” The injury was in the collar bone area.

It could’ve been very serious. Ben Roethlisberger missed a couple of games back in 2012 with a displaced (or dislocated) first-rib, the same injury as Ertz. Here’s what a doctor said of Ben’s injury at the time:

On medical board exams, students and physicians are taught that unless the question describes someone in an unrestrained motor vehicle accident, a first rib injury is not the correct diagnosis. That is the injury Big Ben suffered. Not just a shoulder sprain. Not just a “rib injury.” A, quite literally, potentially fatal first rib dislocation…

The first rib is buried deep within the upper chest. In fact, it is so deep it is impossible to feel from the outside of the body, unlike the clavicle (collar bone) and second rib, both of which can be felt without difficulty.

That is the reason why the injury to Big Ben could have been catastrophic. If his rib dislocated further, Monday Night Football could have ended with Big Ben undergoing emergency life-saving surgery, or worse.

Because the first rib is so deep in the upper chest, it is located amongst a number of important structures.

Such as the lung.

And the esophagus.

Oh, and the aorta.

We don’t know how bad Ertz’s displacement is in comparison to Ben’s, but it could have been very bad. Right now, Ertz is listed as week-to-week.

pic from Dave Zangaro