New York Giants Safety and Linebacker Landon Collins broke his forearm on December 24, 2017 and had open reduction and internal fixation with plates and screws. He will undergo a second surgery on April 23, 2018 because, by report, one or both of the bones is not healing as expected.
It’s relatively unusual for a fracture of the diaphyseal radius or ulna not to heal after plate and screw fixation. Often there is a technical shortcoming (plate too short or too small), infection, or relatively severe soft-tissue injury and decreased blood supply to the bones (see: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15523016 ).
X-Rays are used to see if the plate and screws are loose or broken and if bone has crossed the fracture line. When the implants loosen or break, the need for more surgery is clear. Sometimes doctors get concerned about what seems to be a persistent fracture line and offer patients a second surgery before the plates loosen or break, but that is a debatable approach.
The surgery will likely place a new plate and screws and apply some bone taken from another part of the body in order to stimulate healing.
In most cases, forearm bone fractures need about six months of healing in order to play contact sports with a reasonable level of risk.

This article was made by Paul Bonilla and David Ring