Hello all! I'm a registered MRI technologist with 20 yrs experience. I've performed thousands of knee MRI procedures, and all I can say is that knee injuries are VERY subjective, especially when it comes to meniscal trauma. Tears can be very minor, to severe, but it is VERY difficult to guess that by how a patient walks, hobbles or is wheeled thru the door.
I've seen fairly severe tears, where I'd question why the patient was even having the exam done, and others groaning in pain, with the slightest tear! So basically it comes down to what the patient can tolerate!
Of course PP could make a slight tear much worse, but at this stage of the playoffs I think he's willing to deal with it, and deal with the extent of a surgery later! (pain on the inside of the knee would also seem to preclude an ACL OR PCL injury, which are more centrally located, and pretty much put you out of action completely!
Also, while it is helpful to wait til swelling subsides to perform a scan, with the many sequences available to us to show anatomy in different ways, it is not necessary. PP probably didn't want the MRI, cause he's hell bent on playing regardless of what it might show!