5 Injuries Travis Kelce Has Dealt With As A Result Of His Football Career

American football certainly ranks highly for being one of the roughest popular sports. Professional athletes, like Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, have learned over the years just how hard it can be from a physical perspective. During his 14-year football career, Kelce has sustained plenty of injuries to various body parts. Some were minor, but others kept him on the sidelines for substantial amounts of time.

Unsurprisingly, injuries are common in American football. According to a 2014 study in the Orthopaedic Journal of Sports Medicine, 37% of players retired with whole-person impairment. The study also found that the more years a football player was in the National Football League (NFL), the more likely he was to leave the sport with a whole-body impairment. With that said, the risk of getting injured isn't a shock to football players like Kelce. They feel the forces exerted on them — exceeding 1,500 pounds of force in some instances of player-to-player collisions, as outlined in testimony presented in 2014 to the U.S. Congress by physicist Dr. Timothy J. Gay. 

All the helmets and padding in the world can't protect someone against every possible gridiron collision, awkward movement, or hard fall. Kelce has definitely learned how quickly injuries can take players out of action, given all the "Ouch!" moments that he's experienced as a result of his career.

Over the years, Travis Kelce has had at least three documented knee issues. The first one in 2013 involved arthroscopic surgery on a tricky knee; the official cause was a patellar (kneecap) fracture. At the time, Sportsnet reported that the intervention was to repair damaged cartilage. The media outlet also estimated that Kelce could miss the rest of the season's games, citing head trainer Rick Burkholder, who said, "We protected him so he didn't do any additional damage. That gives him the best chance to come back and have a good, long career."

Burkholder's assessment turned out to be correct, and Kelce came out of his rookie year with a healed knee. Still, he recalled his frustration during a 2025 "Bussin' With the Boys" interview, admitting that he couldn't run for about half a year. Regardless, he was able to maintain his position and keep playing.

But by 2020, Kelce developed another knee problem; it became swollen after hyperextension. Fortunately, he only had to miss a few practices, per an injury report from the Kansas City Chiefs. The injury was followed three years later by a knee bruise that Kelce acquired in the off-season. He missed the opening game (his first game missed since the 2013 knee injury), but went on to play afterward as anticipated.

Even though Travis Kelce likely wears up to 25 pounds of padding as part of his uniform, his body can still get injured. Take his ribs, for instance: Though it might seem like they're completely protected, he was hit with a rib sprain in 2014. Head coach Andy Reid said at the time that he thought it wasn't a serious injury, and that Kelce, despite experiencing soreness, would be okay (via Arrowhead Pride). Kelce continued playing and didn't miss any time on the field. 

However, not all football players who experience rib pulls are able to ignore the discomfort or cleared to continue playing within their normal schedules. A 2023 article in HSS Journal noted that some rib fractures (which are more serious than rib pulls) are so painful that players must wait to get back into the game until they're comfortable again.

Likewise, sports medicine physician Dr. Gerald Megna told the American Medical Association that even ribcage bruising could require long recuperative periods. "Usually, bruised ribs can take anywhere from four to eight weeks to heal," he explained. Kelce either overcame his pain or may have had only a minor strain.

American football players are on their feet, pivoting and moving during practice and games. With all that razzle dazzle, they sometimes end up getting foot injuries. In the case of Travis Kelce, he has had two documented cases of ankle sprains.

The first ankle mishap befell Kelce in 2015 when his foot got caught on the grass during a preseason practice. His head coach, Andy Reid, gave a fairly straightforward account of the injury: "He just tweaked his ankle a little bit. I think he's lucky the grass gave way a little bit" (via the Kansas City Chiefs). Reid added that the sprain was lower on the ankle.

It wasn't until 2023 that Kelce experienced his second ankle sprain during a match-up against the Minnesota Vikings. He didn't let the injury keep him down, although he didn't risk the potential pitfalls of leaving an ankle sprain untreated. After having his ankle evaluated and taped, he came back on the field — and won the game for the Kansas City Chiefs.

One of the most common of all American football player injuries is the concussion, a type of traumatic brain injury that happens when the brain shifts position inside the skull due to an outside force like a helmet-to-helmet collision. Although the exact percentage of concussions among professional football players isn't known, a 2024 review in World Neurosurgery showed that the NFL reported 692 concussion events between 2019 and 2023. Additionally, any player who has already had one concussion is statistically at greater risk of having another.

Travis Kelce has had two documented concussions, which occurred in successive years starting in 2017. During his first concussion, Kelce suffered a hit that put him into a concussion protocol. The next year, a play that ended with helmet-to-helmet contact sent him once again to the injured list with another concussion.

Kelce talked about concussions in general on the "Ya Neva Know" podcast in 2019. "There's been a time when I've gotten a concussion — I won't say s** to anyone," he admitted. Kelce explained that his reluctance to talk about being concussed stemmed from a desire to stay in the game. After all, how long concussions last can vary widely. However, he did note that he hasn't had a concussion since he changed helmets after 2018. Indeed, newer helmets have helped reduce concussions among football players.

Planned surgeries might as well be treated as injuries, because they can keep an American football player away from the field. That said, when Travis Kelce underwent planned shoulder surgery in 2017, he made sure that he would be able to get back to work immediately by scheduling the surgery in the off season.

The surgical procedure was described as a "cleanup" process in response to an injury to Kelce's labrum in 2016. Along those lines, Kansas City Chiefs coach Andy Reid described the treatment as having the shoulder cleaned out. Typically, this would mean having arthroscopic surgery to make repairs inside the shoulder.

In an interview with The Wall Street Journal in 2023, Kelce reflected on the emotional and physical impact that all his injuries have caused, role-modeling the mental health openness he wants men to embrace. "The discomfort. The pain. The lingering injuries — the 10 surgeries I've had that I still feel every single surgery to this day," he recalled, noting that his thoughts are on retirement more than anyone would guess. However, as of 2026, he's still playing football.