OWINGS MILLS, Md. — With the 2013 season now officially in the books for the Ravens, a pair of starters will undergo minor surgical procedures to correct ailments this offseason.
According to coach John Harbaugh, cornerback Lardarius Webb will have sports hernia surgery after playing through pain in the second half of the season. Webb was listed on the injury report regularly over the final two months of the season with an abdominal injury, which was an indication that he was playing at less than 100 percent.
“He did a nice job with that late in the season,” Harbaugh said. “The thing about sports hernias — if you know anything about it — it’s just painful. Jimmy [Smith] had that last year and had the procedure during the season.”
Starting center Gino Gradkowski will have a procedure to clean up some cartilage issues in his right knee. He was limited in practice last week and was listed as questionable despite playing in the Ravens’ 34-17 loss to Cincinnati in Week 17.
Beyond those two ailments, Harbaugh was unaware of any other scheduled offseason surgeries for players as he praised head certified athletic trainer Mark Smith for the work his staff did in keeping the Ravens healthy this season.
“We got out of the season really healthy,” Harbaugh said. “I thought Mark did a really good job of managing our guys and getting them back as soon as they could but not too early where they [were] reinjured. We didn’t have too many re-injuries, and that’s huge. That’s good news for our guys going into the offseason.”
With the season now over, quarterback Joe Flacco will have time to rest his left knee after he suffered a mild sprain of his medial collateral ligament in a Week 15 win in Detroit, but the injury will not require surgery this winter.
