I have completely severed by left Achilles before; it is a brutal injury. I had a great surgeon and can tell you that while you can recover from it that the explosion a person normally has will be affected. He won't have the same explosion in his step. How much will he have is anyone's guess. My surgery was back in 2008 and I imagine the sports medicine is much better now.
I can say that I was able to walk without crutches fairly quickly though with a noticeable limp and run much sooner than I thought was possible. However, the ability to run was very different and the bounce in my step was severely limited even though I had full strength and full range and motion.
It will be interesting to see but I have my doubts about his ability to recover. Look what happened to Kobe; was he able to play after his surgery? Yes. How did he play? It wasn't the same Kobe.
Achilles injuries are brutal.
