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NFL rife with injuries after Sunday's games

Game ambassadors like Aaron Rodgers, Odell Beckham Jr. and JJ. Watt have all endured season-ending injuries.
Oct 15, 2017; Denver, CO, USA; Denver Broncos wide receiver Emmanuel Sanders (10) is carted off the field in the third quarter against the New York Giants at Sports Authority Field at Mile High. 

Emmanuel Sanders will miss the Chargers game on Sunday with an ankle sprain. Same goes for punt returner and backup receiver Isaiah McKenzie.

The Broncos injuries came in a game against the injury-decimated Giants, and they came in an injury-riddled year for several superstars.

Game ambassadors like Aaron Rodgers, Odell Beckham Jr. and JJ. Watt have all endured season-ending injuries.

Some think the prevalence could be a product of advancement in sport.

“It's the nature of the sport, being a high-speed contact sport there are going to be injuries,” said former Broncos tight end Nick Kasa.

Kasa graduated from University of Colorado before he was drafted by the Oakland Raiders in the 2013 NFL draft.

In college, Kasa had MCL and ACL injuries, as well as a dislocated patella.

The injuries flared up once more in the NFL, moving Kasa to rehabilitation, a practice he still goes through with every day.

“When I think you're looking at football players they are definitely getting bigger, stronger, and faster and they are running at speeds they never used to,” said Marsha Prada, owner of Denver Sport Recovery in the Highlands.

The NFL is notoriously tightlipped, so 9NEWS was not able to obtain total injury data, but in January they did release numbers surrounding the number of ACL and MCL tears, as well as concussions -- three of the most common injuries in football.

In 2012, there were 363 of the injuries documented during preseason and regular season games. In 2013, that number dropped slightly to 339, then again to 313 in 2014.

In 2015, however, the NFL saw 430 of such injuries -- the most in the last five years.

Kasa and Prada didn’t attribute the sharp rise to anything in particular.

“It could just be bad luck,” Prada said. “You’re training 12 months out of the year and in some respects you’re not giving your body a rest so those muscles become fatigued.”

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