Patriots

Patriots’ David Andrews has unique perspective on Christian Barmore’s health situation

Andrews missed the 2019 season with blood clots. Five years later, a teammate is in a similar situation.

By Khari Thompson

August 1, 2024

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David Andrews knows what it’s like to be sidelined with blood clots. The Patriots center missed the 2019 season after his diagnosis.

Now, five years later, teammate Christian Barmore is out indefinitely after being diagnosed with blood clots.

Andrews said he plans to help Barmore as he navigates the recovery process.

“I haven’t really talked to Christian exactly yet because it’s such a whirlwind,” Andrews said. “I don’t know where he is in that whole process and each situation is different and stuff like that so I’m not going to speak to that.”

“But when the time comes, I’ll talk to him because obviously it’s not a knee, it’s not a shoulder, it’s a little different and not a lot of people have gone through it to play football so there will be a chance for us to sit down and talk. Looking forward to that and just kind of letting him get settled.”

Defensive tackle said Barmore is in good spirits. He has left the hospital since being treated over the weekend, according to coach Jerod Mayo. Andrews recalled his situation being different from other types of injuries.

“It’s definitely different,” Andrews said. “I can remember it happened, I got cleared, and then a week later COVID happened and everybody’s freaking out obviously, respiratory stuff, and you’re just like ‘oh man’. It’s definitely scary. I’m glad he’s doing well.”

Andrews said his main takeaway from his experience was gratitude.

“A lot of gratitude because like I said it was 2019, I kind of got cleared and everything was going great and then the world shuts down,” Andrews said. “Then we start hearing all this respiratory stuff and I’m trying to play football again. … You always hear that the game can be taken away from you and I think you take that for granted a little bit especially as a younger player, so I just tried to focus on being grateful for every opportunity that I have because life is very fragile.”

Andrews has played four seasons since missing 2019 and played in all 17 games last season.

“It’s something that you can overcome, it’s just you’ve got to get healthy and then go from there. Worry about your health first and then everything else will fall into place,” he said.