Eagles wide receiver and Olympic hurdler Devon Allen tore an ACL at practice in December, but he says he still believes he can compete in the Summer Olympics in early August.
Allen has now suffered three ACL tears, all on the football field, and he told LetsRun.com that the talents that make him a great hurdler may also make him more susceptible to applying more force to the ground than his knee ligaments can handle.
“It really just comes down to the way my body is built,” Allen said. “What makes me me is that I apply a lot of force to the ground and sometimes I can’t stop that force as well as I can apply it. And I couldn’t really tell you. The play I that injured my knee on, I’ve done probably 100 times this season, the same route, the same kind of movements.”
The Eagles announced in December that they were putting Allen on practice squad injured reserve, but the extent of his injury hadn’t previously been reported.
Allen has won the U.S. national championship in the 110-meter hurdles three times, and he was on the U.S. Olympic team in both 2016 and 2020. He says his ACL surgery went well and he’s further along than he was at a similar point after his two previous ACL tears, and he believes he’ll be ready to go for the U.S. Olympic trials in June.
“It’s not a death sentence anymore, and every time I’ve come back, I’ve come back faster and stronger,” Allen said. “So that’s kind of what I’m hoping for with this next recovery. Obviously, it’s not ideal. I would prefer not to have to go through rehab again. But hey, that’s sports. Especially at this level, we’re pushing our bodies to the limit pretty much 24/7. And for me even more so because I don’t get a rest. I’m going back-to-back seasons where I’m going track to football, football to track.”
Allen only got on the field in two games in 2023 and played special teams exclusively, but he believes he still has a future in football, and wants to play in the NFL next season, hopefully after earning an Olympic medal.