Jalen Hurts' 2026 season was put on pause this week, as the Philadelphia Eagles quarterback was diagnosed with a superficial blood clot that had experienced some movement and the team placed him on IR on Saturday.
The team diagnosed the clot and informed the league of Hurts' situation last week, but he was cleared to suit up and play in their Week 5 London loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars. After a follow-up ultrasound revealed movement in the clot, the team announced Hurts would have to sit for at least one week as they treated him. The Eagles reportedly don't plan to place Hurts on injured reserve, meaning the team believes as of now that he could return in less than four weeks, but this is a fluid situation.
What is a superficial blood clot and how much time could Hurts miss? CBS Sports spoke to Dr. Henry Han at UT Southwestern to get some answers. Dr. Han is a board certified cardiologist that works at the intersection of cardiology and vascular medicine. He has seen clot-related diseases, diseases related to aneurysms, tears in blood vessels, and is very familiar with superficial vein thrombosis.
What exactly is Jalen Hurts dealing with?
A superficial blood clot could be classified as "superficial thrombophlebitis," or a much easier term: "superficial vein thrombosis."
Dr. Han: "Basically it's a blood clot that's in one of the veins that's on the surface level underneath the skin. We typically find it in the leg, sometimes we find it in the arm. What happens is when the clot forms there, the vein gets inflamed. And so the area turns really red, it gets warm and it gets tender."
What's the difference between a superficial clot and the 'deep vein thrombosis' (DVT) that we've seen in sports?
This is a situation that deserves monitoring, but it's also not the more serious "deep vein thrombosis" we've seen in sports before. Spurs superstar Victor Wembanyama, for example, was forced to miss the final 30 games of the 2024-25 season after doctors discovered deep vein thrombosis in his right shoulder. Then there's two-time NBA champion Chris Bosh, who was forced to retire early due to a clotting condition.
Dr. Han: "Superficial clots that sit near the surface on your surface veins are a lot less dangerous compared to the DVT (deep vein thrombosis). In sports we hear about the DVTs that for some athletes end up being sort of career-enders. The interesting part is that the superficial vein thromboses typically are not dangerous to that degree and the treatment for what you would need for both is a little bit different as well."
What exactly caused this?
In their statement released on Thursday, the Eagles said that four days after the Week 4 loss to the Los Angeles Rams, Hurts requested treatment on his calf. He believed he was kicked or cleated in the game.
It's true that trauma to the area could have caused this clot, but we simply don't have enough information to say that definitively.
Dr. Han: "I can't speak to the exact specific case, but sort of generalities, anything that irritates a vein or slows the blood flow can trigger it. So we actually see this for people who have gotten IVs or blood draws when you have a needle in the vein that causes the irritation and damage. Other things too, like long flights. We know that certain hormone medications, pregnancy for women. But definitely trauma is one of the major causes that can cause this sort of superficial thrombophlebitis."
What are the treatment options?
There are numerous cases of NFL players missing time due to blood clots. Take Carolina Panthers star right tackle Taylor Moton for example, who hasn't played at all this season because doctors found blood clots in his lung this summer. That situation required Moton to immediately be placed on blood thinners.
Moton having blood clots found in one of his lungs is a much more serious situation than superficial thrombophlebitis. It varies case to case, of course, but treatments for what Hurts has been diagnosed with can sometimes be simple.
Dr. Han: "Usually what we end up doing for standard of care is that within the first week, you can actually for a lot of patients and a lot of people, you can actually do conservative treatment, which involves things like anti-inflammatory medications, things like ibuprofen or naproxen, staying active, keeping the leg elevated, compression as sort of the first line.
"In these kinds of situations, we actually often think that the superficial thrombophlebitis is a self-contained issue. Usually what I do for my patients is that we do a follow-up scan either 7 or 14 days after the fact. And if we see that the quality of the clot has changed, whether the clot is extended or it has moved or we do find it in deeper veins, then that kind of changes the equation for being more aggressive with treatments, which would include things as we typically do for deep vein thrombosis, the DVTs. That would be the full-on blood thinners, anticoagulants."
So, could Hurts require blood thinners?
Dr. Han: "If it's for superficial thrombophlebitis, not every case needs to be treated with blood thinners. The cases that I treat with blood thinners are for patients that are have the clots that are getting longer or building up, so to speak, or if the patients are profoundly symptomatic with lots of pain that ibuprofen and warm compresses and elevating legs and wearing a compression garment is not cutting it. For those patients, then we do often think about reaching towards anticoagulants, blood thinners. Although the period for treatment for superficial thrombophlebitis is actually much shorter than what we would treat for DVTs. The treatment here is usually a month and a half, 45 days of treatment is sufficient, whereas the DVT sometimes is lifelong, sometimes it's between three to six months."
When could Hurts return?
Everyone wants to know: when could the Eagles quarterback return to the field? It's a good sign that he has not been placed on injured reserve. Since this is not a worst-case scenario like deep vein thrombosis, is there any chance Hurts could miss just one or two weeks? Two key factors are whether he requires blood thinners and whether this clot is indeed a self-contained issue.
Dr. Han: "It is possible. Again, just because I don't know the details of the case. The risk as I see it is being on a blood thinner and playing a contact sport would put him at extremely high risk of bleeding. And that's all bleeding complications -- blood trauma, but also internal bleeding. Oftentimes for athletics to this degree, it becomes a very strong safety consideration for being able to play or not. It's also a little hard for me to speculate if their phrasing for it -- 'It's moving' -- means that there are clots in other places, then the timeline for when he might come back is a lot harder for me to say.
"I would say the standard is if he was on blood thinners for just superficial thrombophlebitis that could be -- for symptomatic treatment -- that could be upwards of 45 days for treatment. But if there are extenuating circumstances that would have progressed or made it more dangerous or had turned into a deep vein thrombosis or something like that, then the treatment times could be much longer."
