Ex-Eagles captain Chris Maragos is suing his doctors in Philly court. Here are the types of knee injuries tackled in the trial.

The morning after the Eagles won the 2023 NFC championship, the team’s former special teams captain, Chris Maragos, arrived at a City Hall courtroom.

Maragos, who retired in 2019, was sidelined the last time the Eagles played in the NFC championship in 2018, recovering from a knee injury and surgery.

Maragos never played again after tearing his posterior cruciate ligament, or PCL, in the 2017 season.

Since then, he’s had multiple surgeries on his right knee, and his lawyers say he still suffers pain to this day — which, in a lawsuit, Maragos blames on bad treatment. Maragos is suing his orthopedic surgeon as well as the physicians who oversaw his rehab, alleging medical negligence. In court, his lawyers argued that the care team failed to recognize and address other problems with his knee when they fixed his PCL, specifically a meniscus tear.

» READ MORE: A former Eagles captain is suing his doctors in Philly court over a career-ending knee injury

The Inquirer spoke with John Vasudevan, a sports medicine physician at Penn Medicine, about knee injuries. Vasudevan did not examine Maragos or review the legal records. But he treated other people with PCL tears and spoke generally about this type of injury.

There are two central ligaments in the knee that connect the shinbone and thighbone, the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in the front and PCL in the back. The job of the PCL is to prevent the shinbone from moving behind the thighbone when the knee is bent.

Unlike ACL injuries that can happen because of movements such as pivoting and abrupt stops, PCL injuries are usually a result of blunt trauma, Vasudevan said. Examples include falling hard on the knee, or slamming into the bottom of the dashboard in a car accident.

The degree of PCL injury ranges from a sprain, in which there is no tear, to a full tear of the ligament.

More often than not, PCL tears are treated conservatively, meaning that physicians recommend rest and let the knee heal itself.

“The vast majority amount of people who aren’t at very high demand, like an elite athlete, may move on in life feeling just fine,” Vasudevan said.

But there are circumstances in which surgery is recommended, such as when the injury leads to knee instability or if there is damage to other structures in the knee, such as nerves or blood vessels. An orthopedic surgeon could reconstruct the PCL by implanting a ligament from somewhere else in the body or from a cadaver.

The meniscus is a C-shaped piece of dense white tissue that acts as a shock absorber in the knee. There are two menisci in the knee, which provides the needed cushion between the shinbone and the thighbone.

A meniscus can tear or slip out of its spot in the knee— an injury known as an extrusion.

Like most PCL injuries, most meniscus injuries in people who aren’t athletes can be treated with rest, ice, and elevation of the knee to allow the body to heal itself. But in some cases, surgery could be necessary to either repair the tear or trim the injured meniscus, according to the Mayo Clinic.

» READ MORE: Joel Embiid has a meniscus tear. Here’s what that means. (Published 2021)

When it comes to injuries ending a NFL career or a season, knee issues are among the most common.

Just look at the 2017 Eagles season: running back Darren Sproles, offensive tackle Jason Peters, and quarterback Carson Wentz all tore ACLs, in addition to Maragos’ PCL tear.

This season, in Week 1 alone, Eagles defensive end Derek Barnett tore his ACL, sidelining him for the season. In November, defensive tackle Marlon Tuipulotu tore his meniscus.

When it comes to PCL Issues, one study found that 3% of the 2,285 athletes who participated in the NFL Combine between 2009 and 2015 had some PCL injury — and that’s before they played a single game on the professional level.

Earlier this season, Ravens’ quarterback Lamar Jackson sprained his PCL, and last year, Dallas Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott shared that he played in multiple games with a partially-torn PCL.