Rob Gronkowski has punctured lung in addition to broken ribs

Rob Gronkowski has been ruled out for Sunday night’s game between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and New England Patriots, and it turns out his injuries are actually worse than have been reported.

Gronkowski told Jay Glazer of FOX Sports on Sunday that he has a punctured lung in addition to multiple broken ribs.

. @RobGronkowski tells me he actually has “four cracked ribs, one broken rib and a punctured lung” which is about the only thing that would have kept him out of this game! So much more damage than was out there. @NFLonFOX

— Jay Glazer (@JayGlazer) October 3, 2021

Gronk was on the receiving end of a huge hit (video here) in last week’s loss to the Los Angeles Rams. He actually returned to the game for a brief period, so there was initially optimism that he could play against his former team.

Obviously, Gronkowski would have been willing to play through pain in the most highly anticipated regular season game of all time. Now that we know he has a punctured lung, it makes sense that he didn’t make the trip to Foxboro.