Jay Glazer broke the story this evening that Eagles WR Jeremy Maclin has been cleared to return to football after doctors gave him a clean bill of health. Maclin revealed that his absence from Eagles training camp stemmed from a false positive test earlier in the summer that led doctors to believe that he had contracted a form of cancer known as lymphoma.
However, after five months of extensive and sometimes painful testing, doctors finally confirmed that that the initial suspicions were incorrect and he had no traces of cancer. Maclin told Glazer that he wanted everyone to know he was fine and that all the rumors that had been swirling about him were unfounded.
"That’s first and foremost, I want everyone to know I’m fine, I’m healthy," Maclin said. "I was tested for everything, and everyt single test came back negative. I don’t have mono, I don’t have AIDS, leukemia — all the things people were guessing on, there was nothing. I was being tested for lymphoma and thank God everything has come back negative.
The ordeal began back in May when, according to the report, he began experiencing "rapid weight loss, iron anemia and irregular results from blood tests." Doctors found that his lymph nodes were inflamed, which combined with those other symptoms can be a sign of lymphoma. So Maclin then spent the entire summer putting weight back on, getting in shape for the season and actually feeling just fine, but all while having it in his mind that he might have cancer. The 23 year old said that it was frustrating to hear all the rumors about his illness, but he preferred to keep the issue private until he was sure of the final diagnosis. He credits the Eagles for protecting his privacy.
"I wanted to keep it private until I knew for sure what was going on, and the Eagles were amazing. They were one of the only ones who knew. My relationship with them is more than professional. They were like family during this."
In the end, the cause was simply an inflammatory virus which doesn't even require medicine. It just runs through your system and that's that. Unfortunately, the mental anguish and cancer tests he had to endure ended up being far worse than the actual disease itself.
Maclin says he has been cleared to return to football, but he'll have to "wait a little more" while he recovers from the final procedure that was done to unequivocally rule out cancer. It actually involved doctors removing his lymph nodes through his belly button. But with that all behind him, Maclin says he's just looking forward to getting back to normal life.
"Man, I don’t wish this on anybody. I look back at my whole life, I’ve already gone through so much. I already appreciate where I am and appreciate the game of football. I can’t wait to get back out there and just resume my normal life."