Henry Melton has torn ACL, out for season

SHARE Henry Melton has torn ACL, out for season

Bears defensive tackle Henry Melton is carted off after being injured in the third quarter against the Steelers on Sunday in Pittsburgh. | Don Wright/AP

Defensive tackle Henry Melton tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee Sunday night, Bears coach Marc Trestman confirmed Monday, and will miss the rest of the season.

Melton will have surgery in a few weeks once swelling subsides.

He hurt his knee while rushing the passer against David DeCastro.

“I watched it on tape,” Trestman said. “There was no collision.”

Trestman said Melton was disappointed; he stayed on the phone with Melton while both were driving to their homes after the team charter landed early Monday. Later in the morning, Trestman spent time with Melton and his mother, and called the situation “terribly disappointing.”

On Twitter, Melton thanked fans “for the love and support” over the last day.

“I WILL be ready next season,” he wrote. “But in the meantime I will grind harder than ever before and cheer on my Bears to the (championship). Everything happens for a reason.”

The coach said he liked Nate Collins, who is in the team’s rotation and is the likely starter Sunday, and practice squad player Zach Minter. However, the Bears will discuss how to fill the hole Monday, the coach said, hinting at a roster move.

Trestman said that Charles Tillman received treatment Monday for what he called a “tight” groin, probably a result of overcompensation from a lingering knee problem. The team will be “very cautious” with the cornerback in practice this week, he said.

The Latest
The man was shot in the left eye area in the 5700 block of South Christiana Avenue on the city’s Southwest Side.
Most women who seek abortions are women of color, especially Black women. Restricting access to mifepristone, as a case now before the Supreme Court seeks to do, would worsen racial health disparities.
The Bears have spent months studying the draft. They’ll spend the next one plotting what could happen.
Woman is getting anxious about how often she has to host her husband’s hunting buddy and his wife, who don’t contribute at all to mealtimes.
He launched a campaign against a proposed neo-Nazis march at a time the suburb was home to many Holocaust survivors. His rabbi at Skokie Central Congregation urged Jews to ignore the Nazis. “I jumped up and said, ‘No, Rabbi. We will not stay home and close the windows.’ ”