Record-Breaking NFL Player Puka Nacua Could Be Dealing with Chronic Knee Pain Throughout His Career

After the Sept. 8, 2024, NFL game between the Los Angeles Rams and Detroit Lions, a rematch of the 2023 season’s NFC Wild Card Game, Rams fans are worried for their team’s health. Several players, most notably Puka Nacua, came away from the Sunday night game with injuries, but the Rams' loss was still a nail-biter, going into overtime and losing by just six points.

While fans are understandably upset over the loss, their optimism for the team relies on the injured players’ return. In addition to Puka’s knee injury, left guard Steve Avila has a knee injury of his own. Plus, left tackle Joe Noteboom and right guard Kevin Dotson were also injured after the Rams’ opening game, with tackles Alaric Jackson and Rob Havenstein already on the IL. As of Sept. 9, the Rams have 14 players on the injured list — but is there an update for Puka?

To casual fans watching at home, it seemed like Puka’s injury happened during the Sept. 8 game against the Lions, but he might have actually exacerbated an old injury. In the first half of the game, Puka landed on his knee while catching the ball. He “limped off the field,” according to The Athletic, “before getting a long evaluation by medical staff in the blue sideline tent.”

But that wasn’t the end of it. Puka went back onto the field to try to play off the pain and made a couple of plays. The pain took over, however, and Puka was forced back to the bench and replaced by Tyler Johnson. He was then “carted off the field to the locker room” after putting up four receptions for 35 yards.

While there was no post-game update on Puka’s knee injury directly after the game, NFL Network pundit Ian Rapoport provided an update on Good Morning Football. “He’s going to have tests this afternoon just to determine what is going on there in his knee,” Ian said.

“No firm word yet on his status, but obviously [it’s the] same knee as training camp, clearly an issue there, clearly in some pain that he was battling through. Wouldn’t be surprised if he misses some time as he figures out and tries to improve this issue.”

Football players get injured all of the time, but there’s no player like Puka. He joined the NFL for the 2023 season as a rookie after he was a fifth-round pick out of Brigham Young University. Despite it being his rookie season, Puka broke records as a wide receiver and was expected to be an important part of the 2024 Rams’ bid for the Super Bowl title.

With 105 receptions for 1,486 receiving yards, he set NFL rookie records. However, his knee injury goes all the way back to a training camp joint practice with the Los Angeles Chargers, during which Puka landed on a bursa sac in his right knee. The bursa sacs are small fluid-filled sacs near the knee joints that can become easily inflamed, especially for athletes.

Without proper rest, the injury could continue to get worse and cause chronic pain. Hopefully, Puka gets the rest he needs to continue in the 2024 season to lead the Rams to victory.