Tank Dell’s difficult road to recovery has been laid bare after the Houston Texans wide receiver suffered a “career threatening” injury on Saturday.

In the third quarter of Houston’s 27-19 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs, Dell collided with teammate Jared Wayne while making a touchdown catch in the back of the endzone. Speaking to reporters on Monday, Texans head coach DeMeco Ryans revealed that the 25-year-old sustained a dislocated knee cap and a torn ACL, in addition to “some other thing there that he’ll have to get repaired.”

According to league sources, Dell tore his medial collateral and lateral collateral ligaments, as well as suffered damage to his meniscus. Given the severity of the injury and timing of when it happened, orthopedic surgeon David Chao told KPRC 2 that there’s a chance he may never play in the NFL again.

“This is a much more difficult recovery than just an ACL, it’s a knee dislocation with three of four major ligaments torn and it’s a long road back,” said Chao, who previously served as an NFL team head doctor for 17 years. “Unfortunately, it has to be considered career threatening, but we all hope not career-ending.

“Surgery is usually staged with this severe an injury. Whatever you can repair, you repair now, the MCL and LCL. The ACL is typically a reconstruction and you delay that until later when swelling goes down and there’s more mobility.”

Though Dell remains a longshot to play for the Texans next season, Chao noted that it is possible. For evidence, he cited Cleveland Browns running back Nick Chubb, who returned to the field in October following a significant knee injury he suffered just under 57 weeks prior.

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Tank Dell suffered a 'career threatening' injury against the Kansas City Chiefs

Tank Dell suffered a ‘career threatening’ injury against the Kansas City Chiefs ( 

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Photo by Jason Hanna/Getty Images)

“A typical recovery timetable, it would be great if he could participate at some point next season, but it’s far from guaranteed he will play at any point next season. It’s similar to what happened with Browns running back Nick Chubb,” Chao said. “They’re both knee dislocations, but not all knee dislocations are the same. This is a much more complicated surgery process than an isolated ACL and, as such, it’s going to be multiple surgeries and lots of follow-up.

“As much as this is a devastating injury, Nick Chubb did return to play his next season. Let’s hope for a similar good outcome for Tank Dell.”

On Monday, Ryans stopped short of confirming whether Dell will be able to suit up for the Texans in the 2025-26 campaign – insisting that his status for next year is the least of their worries at this time.

‘Right now, the focus is just on Tank, just going through this process, getting the surgery, getting recovered, we’ll deal with that when it comes,” Ryans said. “I don’t think it’s the time right now to discuss what’s going to happen next season with Tank, just allow him to get this time to heal up and recover.”