The news surrounding achilles injuries are never positive. The rate of a successful return is through the floor. Some come back and have an average career. Most end up never making it back at all.
Vince Wilfork is going to try and do the unthinkable at age 32. He's going to try and make it back and be a major piece in his team winning it all.
As surgeons and surgeries have improved, so have the recovery rates of plenty of patients. Discussions surrounding a player's return from a torn ACL would be in a hushed tone, as if the player didn't have a chance at survival. In the world of sports, they usually didn't. An ACL injury would be the kiss of death and the player would never come back at the same level, never mind coming back and being better.
Well, those days are mostly in the past. ACL injuries aren't quite the same as they used to be and players have been returning to their careers faster and stronger than every before.
It's likely the same transformation is happening on the achilles front.
USA Today's Tom Pelissero notes that there have been numerous success stories of players returning from an achilles injury over this past season. Terrell Suggs and Jason Peters returned from injuries in the spring of 2012 to be two of the best players in their position in 2013. Demaryius Thomas hurt himself in 2011, and we all know how fantastic he's been for the Broncos.
Michael Crabtree. Brent Grimes.
Vince Wilfork.
Wilfork may be old, but he has the heart of a champion and you know he'll do everything in his power to come back and be an impactful player on defense. While the odds may be stacked against him, the dice have yet to be tossed.
The captain will return. Don't count him out just yet.