Julian Edelman Shares Details About Why Knee Injury Forced Retirement

It’s not exactly groundbreaking to say that former New England Patriots receiver Julian Edelman hadn’t been at his best physically leading up to his offseason retirement.

The 34-year-old Edelman was plagued by long list of injuries, including a lingering knee ailment, which ultimately forced Edelman to hang them up last month. He played just six games in 2020.

Well, the longtime Patriots wideout offered a little bit more insight into just how bad his knee injury was Thursday during an appearance on the “Pat McAfee Show.”

“I’m just like most guys that have knee problems, I’m just bone on bone,” Edelman said. “And also my medial side is just worn out because I tore a PCL years ago and you don’t repair those. So, then you just get this lag in your (tibia-fibula) and then I’m bow legged so you’re just going over years, years, years of grinding.

“And then last year I popped the root of my cartilage so the whole medial side is just kind of like ‘Alright we run, alright my knee blows up, alright lets go in the pool.’ I hated that. I don’t like that.”

Edelman, while talking with various media outlets since his announced his retirement, made it clear that he had no trouble calling it a career due to said knee problems. He expressed how he “respected” the game too much to play despite not being at 100 percent.

Edelman, though, is expected to be around as he will join the cast of the football talk show “Inside the NFL.”