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We knew Patriots guard Logan Mankins had surgery to repair a torn ACL after the Super Bowl, but it seems the problem existed for a long time before it was fixed.

Adam Schefter of ESPN reported Sunday morning that Mankins actually tore the ligament in the season opener against the Dolphins last season. We can’t think of any player who played an entire season with a torn ACL, which makes Mankins’ presence on the field in those games fairly remarkable given how long players are usually sidelined by injuries of that type.

There were reports at the time of the surgery that Mankins knew he had a partially torn ligament, but that he was unaware of the severity of the injury until after the season came to an end. The Patriots never reported the injury on their weekly injury reports. Mankins never seemed to be at risk of missing games, but, per Schefter’s report, they knew the injury was severe.

We got our first inkling that there was something wrong with Mankins came late in the season when he injured his MCL. That was in the left knee, though, and Mankins tore the ACL in the other knee. That left Mankins at something less than his best in the Super Bowl.

A return to form for Mankins would be a boon for a Patriots offensive line that struggled during the preseason.