Jalen hurts with blood clot: Expert weighs in on Eagles situation and when QB could return to field

Editor’s Note: This article was originally published on October 17 after Jalen Hurts was diagnosed with a superficial blood clot. The Eagles have has since announced that Hurts now suffers from deep vein thrombosis and that several blood clots were found in his lungs. He is now expected to miss the rest of the season.

Jalen Hurts’ 2026 season was suspended this week as the Philadelphia Eagles quarterback was diagnosed with a superficial blood clot that had 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 dress and play in London’s Week 5 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars. After a follow-up ultrasound revealed movement in the clot, the team announced that Hurts would have to sit for at least a week while they treated him. It initially appeared the quarterback would avoid injured reserve, but ESPN reported Saturday afternoon that after consultations with doctors and experts, the Eagles decided to place Hurts on injured reserve, meaning he will miss at least the next four games.

What is a superficial blood clot and how long could Hurts be missing? CBS Sports spoke with UT Southwestern’s Dr. Henry Han to get some answers. Dr. Han is a board-certified cardiologist working at the intersection of cardiology and vascular medicine. He has seen diseases related to clots, aneurysms, tears in blood vessels and is very familiar with superficial vein thrombosis.

What exactly is Jalen Hurts facing?

A superficial blood clot could be classified as “superficial thrombophlebitis” or a much simpler term: “superficial venous thrombosis.”

Dr. Han: “Basically, it’s a blood clot that’s in one of the veins on the surface under the skin. We usually find it in the leg, sometimes in the arm. What happens is when the clot forms there, the vein becomes inflamed. And so the area becomes very red, it becomes warm and tender.”

What is the difference between a superficial clot and the “deep vein thrombosis” (DVT) that we have seen in sport?

It’s a situation worth monitoring, but it’s also not the most serious “deep vein thrombosis” we’ve seen before in sports. Spurs superstar Victor Wembanyama, for example, was forced to miss the final 30 games of the 2024-25 season after doctors discovered a 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 problem.

Dr. Han: “Superficial clots that are near the surface of your superficial veins are much less dangerous than DVT (deep vein thrombosis). In sports we hear about DVTs which, for some athletes, ultimately end their careers. What’s interesting is that superficial vein thromboses are generally not dangerous to this degree and the treatment you would need for both is a little different as well.”

What exactly caused this?

In their statement released Thursday, the Eagles said that four days after the Week 4 loss to the Los Angeles Rams, Hurts requested treatment on his calf. He thought he was kicked or spiked during the match.

It’s true that trauma to the area could have caused this clot, but we just don’t have enough information to say for sure.

Dr. Han: “I can’t speak to an exact specific case, but in general anything that irritates a vein or slows blood flow can trigger it. So we see this in people who have had IV drips or blood draws where a needle in the vein causes irritation and damage. Other things as well, like long flights. We know that some hormonal medications cause pregnancy in women. But trauma is definitely one of the main causes that can cause this type of superficial thrombophlebitis.

What are the treatment options?

There are many cases of NFL players missing time due to blood clots. Take for example Carolina Panthers star right tackle Taylor Moton, who hasn’t played at all this season because doctors found blood clots in his lungs this summer. This situation required Moton to be immediately placed on blood thinners.

Moton having blood clots discovered in one of his lungs is a much more serious situation than superficial thrombophlebitis. This of course varies from case to case, but treatments for whatever hurts have been diagnosed can sometimes be simple.

Dr. Han: “Usually what we end up doing in terms of standard care is in the first week you can actually, for a lot of patients and people, 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 often think that superficial thrombophlebitis is a standalone problem. Usually what I do for my patients is we do a follow-up exam 7 or 14 days after the fact. And if we find that the quality of the clot has changed, whether the clot is extensive or if it has moved or we find it in deeper veins, then that changes the equation to be more aggressive with treatments, which would include things like we usually do for deep vein thrombosis, DVT These would be the anticoagulants in their own right.

So, could Hurts require blood thinners?

Dr. Han: “If it’s superficial thrombophlebitis, not every case needs to be treated with anticoagulants. The cases that I treat with anticoagulants are for patients who have clots that are elongating or accumulating, so to speak, or if the patients are deeply symptomatic with a lot of pain that ibuprofen and hot compresses and elevating the legs and wearing a compression garment are not enough not For these patients, we often think about resorting to anticoagulants, blood Although the treatment period for superficial thrombophlebitis is actually much shorter than what we would treat for DVT, the treatment here usually lasts a month and a half, 45 days of treatment is enough, whereas DVT sometimes lasts a lifetime, sometimes between three and six months.

When could Hurts return?

Everyone wants to know: When could the Eagles quarterback return to the field? Since this isn’t a worst-case scenario like deep vein thrombosis, we asked Dr. Han, before Hurts was placed on injured reserve, if there was a chance he could miss just a week or two.

Two key factors are whether he needs blood thinners and whether this clot is indeed a standalone problem.

Dr. Han: “It’s possible. Again, just because I don’t know the details of the case. The risk, as I see it, is that taking a blood thinner and playing a contact sport would put him at an extremely high risk of bleeding. And those are all bleeding complications – blood trauma, but also internal bleeding. Often for an athlete to that degree, it becomes a very important safety consideration in terms of being able to play or not. It’s also a little difficult for me to speculating if their wording – ‘It’s moving’ – means there are clots in other places, then it’s much harder for me to say when it might come back.

“I would say the standard is if he was taking blood thinners for superficial thrombophlebitis, it might be – for symptomatic treatment – it might take longer than 45 days for treatment. But if there were extenuating circumstances that would have progressed or made the situation more dangerous or turned into deep vein thrombosis or something like that, then the treatment durations might be much longer.”