Lions DE Aidan Hutchinson says he’s fully cleared from 2024’s broken leg

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Detroit Lions defensive end Aidan Hutchinson said he has been fully cleared in his comeback from having leg surgery to repair two broken bones.

“I’m rolling with the boys and it feels like I’m back to being myself again,” Hutchinson said Thursday at the team’s training facility, where he is participating in offseason workouts. “I think this is the most I’ve been excited for OTAs.”

Hutchinson had surgery to repair a broken tibia and fibula after he was injured in a win at Dallas last October. He was leading the league with 7 1/2 sacks through five games when he was hurt.

Detroit finished the regular season with a franchise-record 15 wins, tying Kansas City for the most in the NFL, and lost to Washington in the divisional round of the playoffs while Hutchinson was relegated to watching his teammates play.

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“For a while, I feel like I was just numb to things because I had this vision of how the season was going to go and boom,” he said.

The 6-foot-7 Hutchinson had played 17 games in both previous years of his career, both with the Lions. He registered 9.5 sacks in his rookie season and 11.5 in his second, while recording 52 and 51 tackles in those seasons, respectively.