Gronkowski on M&M: 'Just a freak accident'

Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski broke his silence on Thursday when he checked in with Mut & Merloni and provided an update on his broken left forearm.

“The arm’s doing all right. Just casted it up,” he said. “Got a lot of time to heal now. So, there’s no hurry, no rush. Just taking it week by week and day by day, and just getting it stronger every day. So, I’m improving every week. It’s the offseason now, so, no time to rush it. Get it 100 percent before camp starts.”

Gronkowski broke his arm for the second time early in the playoff game against the Texans when he used the arm to brace himself while falling after an incomplete pass.

“Right when I landed obviously I was in huge pain,” he said. “I knew there was something wrong right when I hit. I just wasn’t sure what it was. Because sometimes you get a stinger, sometimes you get a charley horse and they go away after two minutes — they just hurt real bad, real quick for like two minutes. So, I was just hoping it was that — like a quick stinger, hitting your joint in your elbow or something where it just numbs your arm real quick. I was just hoping it was one of those. But the pain wasn’t going away, obviously, and obviously it broke.

“It wasn’t the way I wanted to go out. Definitely it wasn’t. It is what it was. That’s what happened.”

Despite it being the second time the arm broke this season, Gronkowski said he doesn’t feel that he came back too soon.

“I couldn’t really tell you if it was healed or not. It felt good,” he said. “Just going into the playoff game I felt ready, I felt confident about it. Like I said, it was just a freak accident. It didn’t go the way I planned. It broke in a different spot. It just happened. Obviously I wasn’t planning on that.”

Gronkowski originally broke the arm in the final minutes of a 59-24 rout of the Colts on Nov. 18, while blocking on an extra point. He said there was no injury prior to that play, and he doesn’t regret being on the field late in a blowout win.

“It happened on the extra point,” he confirmed. “I mean, it’s football. You’ve got to be out there. It’s a team game. You’ve got to be out there for your team. it doesn’t matter when it happened. It can happen at any time. It’s just a freak accident. Just got to get it 100 percent now.”

Gronkowski returned for the final game of the regular season, a meeting with the Dolphins on Dec. 30, but he clearly was not yet comfortable with the arm.

“I really wasn’t that confident obviously going in, because obviously I was using one hand, as you can see,” he said. “I was just getting used to it and all, just getting used to the flow of the game again, it’s good to get the speed down and all that, and just getting me prepared going into the playoffs, playing in that Miami game.”

Despite the fact that he was not comfortable in that game, Gronkowski said he has no regrets about returning then.

“If the doctors didn’t clear me and they said it wasn’t smart to play in the Miami game, then I wouldn’t have,” he said. “But the doctors cleared me and they said I was good to go. Obviously I want to be out there whenever I can get out there. So, right when they said I was cleared, I was definitely ready to go.”

To hear the interview, go to the Mut & Merloni audio on demand page. For more Patriots news, visit the team page at weei.com/patriots.