Former Alabama quarterback Jalen Hurts was revealed to be out for the season this week with a scary blood clot issue that began in his calf then traveled to his lungs.

Fortunately, it seems like this was caught early enough that Hurts should eventually make a full recovery, but hearing that a player is dealing with blood clot issues is never a good headline. In the case of the Philadelphia Eagles QB, it sounds like this level of progression is extremely rare, but there are warning signs folks should not ignore with their own health.

UAB Pulmonary and Critical Care Specialist Dr. Derek Russell spoke to WRBC and explained how this could have happened after things started with a superficial clot in Hurts’ calf – a condition that usually goes away on its own with patients encouraged to stay active for blood flow purposes.

‘This is something that typically with time and just keeping an eye on it goes away, but, as happened with him, it can kind of continue,” Russell said. “The clot inside that small vein can keep going to where it connects to a deeper vein, and that’s where it gets more dangerous.

“He got really unlucky. It doesn’t usually extend into the deep venous system. But when it does, it, you know, leads to this.”

Russell explained how this could have happened, and while rare, there is always a chance an outcome like this is possible.

“Because there’s that direct highway from the deep veins up into the right side of the heart, if it goes up and lodges in the lung, that hurts your breathing, it hurts your oxygen level, and it can be too much for that right side of the heart to handle,” Russell said. “It’s kind of like a clog in a pipe, things back up and that pressure kind of can overwhelm the heart if it’s too much too fast.”

Russell says that the reason Hurts cannot play is because he has to take blood thinners, and in a contact sport like football, there’s an increased risk of internal bleeding.

“These blood thinners do carry the risk you might expect of bleeding, including bleeding inside. And so the chances in a high impact sport, like football, that something could be bruised inside and it could go from just a minor bruise to something life-threatening. It’s just a chance you can’t take,” he said.