Texans tight end Joel Dreessen, who set career highs in catches and yards in 2009, had surgery on his right shoulder last week to repair an injury from the 2009 season.
Dreessen **discussed the injury and his surgery** on Thursday in an interview with Drew Dougherty of Texans TV.
"I had a little tear in my rotator cuff and a little tear in the labrum, so I had a couple of different issues going on in my right shoulder," he said. "Fortunately, our team doctors did a great job of going in there last week and repairing it. I was in misery there for a couple of days, it was tough, sleeping in the recliner – I'm still sleeping in the recliner. I was in a lot of pain, but God bless my wife. She's eight months pregnant, and here she is waiting on me hand and foot because I can hardly move I'm in so much pain. But I'm doing a lot better now. Our rehab process is going good, so I'll be here all offseason."
Dreessen also detailed his daily rehab routine.
"You get here fairly early in the morning – about 8 o'clock or so – and get warmed up, do some of the modalities they call them with the ice compression and some of the electronic stem and that sort of thing," he said. "And then you start your exercises. For me right now, they're kind of limited because I'm so fresh out of surgery. I'm basically doing a lot of manual stretching and some little strengthening exercises right now to get all the muscles around my injury stronger. I go through those and then obviously I've got to do a few things to stay in cardiovascular shape, so I'll hop on the bike or hop in the swimming pool and do those things. I'm usually out of here by noon, so I still get somewhat of an offseason."
The Texans ended the season with 13 players on injured reserve, so Dreessen has had plenty of company in the training room while rehabbing with head athletic trainer Geoff Kaplan and his staff. Dreessen mentioned tight end Owen Daniels, defensive end Tim Bulman, cornerback Antwaun Molden and left tackle Duane Brown as some of the other players rehabbing their injuries alongside him.
Dreessen and his wife are expecting their first child, a baby boy, within the next few days. He discussed that and more in the Texans TV interview and in his **live chat on HoustonTexans.com** on Thursday.
