Defensive tackle Jessie Williams, the fifth-round draftee who sat out his first Seahawks season to rehab an injured knee, suffered another knee injury at practice Wednesday and was carted off the VMAC practice field.
The Seahawks confirmed later Wednesday that it was a knee injury but provided no details. If it is serious, it would be the second such loss in as many days. Tuesday, TE Anthony McCoy had a right Achilles tendon injury that coach Pete Carroll said was serious. McCoy missed all of last season with a tear of the left Achilles.
Williams, a native of Brisbane, Australia, who helped Alabama win a national college championship, returned home after the Super Bowl win and began a cycle of orthokine injections, a derivative of platelet-rich plasma treatments, in which blood is drawn from the patient and centifuged down to separate out blood platelets that enhance and accelerate soft tissue healing.
Besides the injections, which are not FDA-approved in the U.S. but are done routinely here and around the world, particularly among pro athletes, Williams dropped 15 to 20 pounds to around 315. A vigorous rehab program appeared to have salvaged a career that a year ago had a grim outlook, according to Carroll.
“I really thought that maybe Jesse was done — we didn’t know coming out of last season,” Carroll said in June during a mini-camp. “He had a tremendous off-season, his rehab work was great, he worked every day. He’s ready to get in the middle of it. To bring that guy back to us at full speed could be really a great addition.”
