PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – TJ Watt said he feels pretty good and does expect to play, and has been cleared to play, Sunday against the Ravens, a few weeks after having surgery to repair a punctured and then collapsed lung.
Watt said he has often had dry needling and that many other players in the league have a similar process done to elevate pain. He called what happened a couple of weeks ago ‘fluky’. TJ said the procedure was done by a Steelers employee, he didn’t, or hasn’t, brought someone in to perform that procedure.
He went through a timeline of what happened Friday after practice at Acrisure Stadium.
“Got dry kneeling at the facility, didn't feel right shortly afterwards,” Watt said. “I was in a significant amount of pain. Ended up going to the hospital. As you guys see, I had a surgery. The recovery was just different because it was something I wasn't used to.”
“I'm very thankful for everybody here. I'm really thankful for Dr. Levy at UPMC. Taking good care of me, helping guide this whole process back. It's been very unique, but I feel really good sitting here today.”
He said he has no hard feelings about what happened and is under no restrictions. Feels good about the week of practice. As for the emotions of going through all of this?
“Obviously very scary,” Watt said. “Just a significant amount of pain any time you go to work and then all of a sudden you need surgery, it sucks. Just a lot of unknown, but I'm glad to have the doctors that we had, the surgeon that I had, to be able to be here playing a football game this weekend. So I'm really focused on that.”
Watt’s last game played was December 7 against the Ravens. He tied a season-high with six tackles, including a tackle for loss and a quarterback hit. Watt’s last sack came on November 23 against the Bears.
The 31-year-old has more wins against the Ravens (12-5) than any other opponent. His 81 tackles (60 solo) and four forced fumbles against Baltimore are career-highs. Watt also has 17 sacks against, 34 tackles for loss and five passes defensed against the Ravens.