Tyler Bass Pelvic Surgery: Injury Details, Recovery Timeline & Outlook

The Buffalo Bills kicker, Tyler Bass’s season ended really before it ever began. The injury, originally described as pelvic soreness during training camp which morphed into left hip/groin on the injury report, did not get better to the point where he could return this season. The lack of progress essentially forced Bass to undergo surgery in order to continue his NFL career. 

While the exact diagnosis isn’t known, the possible diagnosis which would fit this timeline is a condition called osteitis pubis. 

Read below for an injury timeline review, description of the condition, potential differential diagnosis, and outlook. 

Timeline

Bass began missing practice back on July 28 with what the team described as pelvic soreness. 

He missed three weeks of practice before he returned on August 19 to prepare to kick in the preseason game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

He went 3 for 4 on field goals and 2/2 on extra points. 

He appeared to be on track to play before he had some type of setback the first regular season practice of Week 1 on Wednesday, getting downgraded to DNP Thursday and Friday and placed on injured reserve. At that point, he was listed as a left hip/groin issue. His left hip is his plant leg.

After the team signed K Matt Prater, it was assumed that Bass would rehab until he was ready to return. Everything was quiet for about two months until mid-November when Bills beat reporter Sal Capaccio revealed that Bass has been kicking off to the side as he continues to rehab. 

As part of the press conference following the win over the Pittsburgh Steelers in Week 13, head coach Sean McDermott revealed that Tyler Bass underwent surgery the prior week and he would not return for the 2025 season. 

After that news, any and all Tyler Bass updates stopped other than reports confirming Bass would not be available when Matt Prater suffered his right quadriceps strain.

Osteitis Pubis Diagnosis

This is a condition where there is inflammation between your left and right pubic bones, which is known as the pubic symphysis, from overuse, causing microtrauma. 

This is common in individuals using their hips, pelvis, and groin, which would be exactly what Bass has been doing. This is seen often in pregnancy but also in soccer, hockey, basketball, etc. Given his positional demands, kicking is a high stressor to this area. If this is what Bass is dealing with, he would be experiencing groin or lower abdominal pain or aching throb, pain in the inner thigh, tightness within the pelvis, swelling, or genital pain. 

Interventions

Most cases respond conservatively with therapy and modalities, along with the possibility of injections. In a study in elite athletes, they had 42 cases dealing with this condition and found 71.4 percent of cases had Stage I Osteitis Pubis; there are four stages with Stage I dealing with unilateral pain while Stage 2-4 have bilateral symptoms. Of those in the study with Stage I, most returned within three weeks. 

That is what they appeared to do with Bass when he returned for the Buccaneers game. However, he was placed on injured reserve prior to Week 1. What the team likely did next was place him on injured reserve and likely went to other interventions. 

Injections

Despite physical therapy being the gold standard, there are other interventions available including injections and surgery. Looking at the injections, one study looking at kicking athletes used 12.5% dextrose and 0.5% lidocaine and performed monthly injections. Nearly 92 percent of subjects who underwent these injections returned to play within nine weeks of the first injection. However, most of these subjects had longer-lasting pain prior.

Corticosteroids are also an option, performing one to three injections using a combination of dexamethasone, betamethasone, or methylprednisolone with a local anesthetic such as bupivacaine and lidocaine.

Other studies showed less success with 20 mg of methyprednisolone acetate and 1 mL of 0.5% bupivacaine local anesthetic, helping only 31.2 percent of the subjects within two months but all were pain-free after six months. Finally, one final study showed that 58.6 percent returned to sport with the use of corticosteroids, but 20.7 percent were non-responders. 

It’s entirely possible that Bass underwent injections and he was one of the 20 percent that did not respond to injections and physical therapy. 

Surgery 

Surgery was the next option which it eventually came to. I initially thought there was one option that could have returned him within the season had they decided surgery sooner, but even if they performed this procedure, they would not have used the phrasing that his season was essentially over. 

There was one study where five subjects had a polypropylene mesh placed in the preperitoneal retropubic space. This is the space behind the pubic symphysis and in front of the bladder and prostate. All subjects were able to return within one to two months. It’s possible he still underwent this procedure, but this wouldn’t have offered him enough time to return this season when the surgery was announced.

Nearly all of the possible procedures kept the subjects out for an extended timeframe, well past a reasonable timeframe for Bass to return. 

Other procedures include endoscopic or open symphysis curettage, symphyseal fusion with or without bone graft, open-wedge resection of the symphysis with or without arthrodesis, and procedures to reinforce or repair abdominal or pelvic floor musculature. Surgical procedures can be associated with the release of the adductor tendons or with adductor enthesis repair.

The mesh procedure was already listed above, but looking at other procedures, the wedge resection has good outcomes but took on average 14 months to return. This is where a piece of the bone is cut out to create more space within the joint to reduce the area from rubbing together as much. This procedure has not been favored as much recently according to the literature due to the pelvic instability later on. 

Another option is a fusion of the symphysis pubis had good outcomes with a return to play roughly 6.6 months. This is where the pubic bones are fused where they come together. This procedure had complications of 25 percent according to the literature and the study was in rugby players not specific to kicking. Considering the flexibility a kicker needs especially with unilateral movement, this would not be ideal for an active athlete. 

Symphysis resection is an option where they cut out the affected area and put the structure back together but has a 30 percent complication rate. A plate and bone graft is an option that has had good outcomes to reduce instability and every subject reported elimination of symptoms 

Nearly half of the patients underwent an open pubic symphysis curettage which is a scraping of the bony area with a return to play in 5.63 months. 78 percent of athletes reported that they were better or much better after the procedure. They can do this endoscopically which means minimal cutting.

I’m willing to bet he underwent this procedure versus some of the more complex procedures due to the nature of his position and age.

Update: 1/30/26

This update suggests that he would have had the polypropylene mesh placed in the preperitoneal retropubic space as mentioned above. That was the only surgical procedure that would have allowed him to return in the timeline that Brandon Beane provided.

Final Thoughts

Knowing his surgery date was the week of Thanksgiving, we should either see him return to full action by OTA’s or get an update on the procedure before then to give us a more specific timeline. 

I could be in the ballpark or very wrong on what he had done, but with so few clues available, these are the best educational guesses. Missing a year of football with a new coaching staff and hefty contract puts pressure on Bass to return to form in 2026. The Bills have already brought in competition in Maddux Trujillo and could go look for someone in the draft. If Bass was a pre-June 1 cut, they save $2 million, but if they bring him to camp and then cut him as final roster cuts, they save nearly $3 million.

The future is very uncertain for Tyler Bass. The immediate hope is that he is healthy. Secondarily, I hope he is able to return to his prior level of performance whether it’s here in Buffalo or elsewhere. I’d like to wish Tyler Bass luck as he moves forward with his rehab and career.

Top Photo Credit: Ben Green/Buffalo Bills