This was a tough scenario. A high school senior football player comes in 5 weeks ago with a displaced (3 pieces) mid-shaft clavicle fracture. The clavicle more commonly called the "collarbone" is commonly injured with contact sports, i.e. football, hockey, full contact cycling, etc. The bone when broken generally heals pretty reliably, but it can oftern take 6 - 12 weeks to heal. In this athletes case if we allowed it to heal on its own he would be done for the year. We had a long discussion with the athlete and his parents and decided that the best option for him would be to put a plate over the fracture to stabilize it and to facilitate healing. Dr. Miller told him that it might be possible for him to return to playing 8 - 10 weeks post-op. That may have allowed our baller to come back for the second or third round of playoffs if they made it that far. We saw him at 2 weeks - doing pretty good...out of sling...no real pain...tender over at the incision. Continued blasting away with therapy, range of motion and strengthening exercises...doing pretty good...restored ROM, strength was improving. We saw him at 4 weeks post-op, no tenderness over the incision, full range of motion, good/protective strength. During the visit Mom is looking at us with a worried look because she knows what we are going to saw...her baby can play. The story is to be continued, we will allow him to begin practicing, gradually allowing contact, and maybe getting him back for his last regular season game. His team is undefeated.