Packers' Bakhtiari needs another knee surgery, done for season - ESPN

GREEN BAY, Wis. — David Bakhtiari needs at least one more surgery on his left knee — the fifth since he tore his ACL on Dec. 31, 2020 — and he won't be able to return to the Green Bay Packers this season.

The question is whether, for health or financial reasons, the five-time All-Pro left tackle ever will play for the club — or any other team — again.

Bakhtiari, who was placed on injured reserve last week, spent nearly 40 minutes on Friday detailing all the issues that he has dealt with since the initial injury. He has played in just 13 out of 38 regular-season games since the injury. This season, he played in only the season opener.

The latest surgery is a major one, Bakhtiari said, and he hopes to return for the start of training camp next summer. Bakhtiari had minor surgery done last week to «clean out and address what we're going to do moving forward,» he said.

The upcoming surgery, Bakhtiari said, is to address the lateral femoral condyle cartilage tear he sustained during the initial injury. The reason it wasn't repaired during his first ACL surgery, he said, was because there was a chance it wouldn't be problematic going forward.

«I could've been asymptomatic the entire time with that issue, and by addressing it we [might have] just added in a problem that didn't need to be,» Bakhtiari said. «That's why it's like, let's go ahead and try and see if this is a problem. If it's not, then great, then we continue on, we dodged a bullet and life is good.

»But now knowing that it is [a problem] would've been nice. Hindsight's 20/20."

Throughout his recovery and into his return to play, Bakhtiari experienced multiple occasions in which fluid built up in his knee. It wasn't clear until recently that the cartilage damage to