Russell Wilson confirms surgery, Seahawks brace for first games missed of his NFL career
The Seahawks and Russell Wilson cheated inevitability for 10 years, that even he would finally get hurt.
The $140 million franchise quarterback who’s never missed a game in his career had surgery Friday.
Now the reeling, 2-3 Seahawks are bracing for the unprecedented, him to miss games possibly into late November.
Wilson had surgery to repair a ruptured tendon in the middle finger of his throwing hand, he confirmed on his Twitter account.
Hand specialist Dr. Steven Shin did the surgery at the Cedars-Sinai Kerlan Jobe Surgery Center in Los Angeles. Shin stabilized Wilson’s finger with screws.
Wilson “sustained two injuries to the finger: an extensor tendon rupture (mallet finger) and a comminuted fracture-dislocation of the proximal interphalangeal joint,” Dr. Shin wrote in a statement the Seahawks released Friday night.
A comminuted fracture is defined by the National Institute of Health as “a break or splinter of the bone into more than two fragments. ... External fixation devices such as splints and casts are usually inadequate in treating this type of fracture. Repairing a comminuted fracture often requires open surgery to restructure the bone to normal anatomy.”
“He will start therapy this weekend and it is highly anticipated that he will return to play later this season,” Shin wrote.
“Based on what I saw today, I am full confident Russell will return to the NFL this season and play at the same world class level that fans have come to expect of one of the game’s very best quarterbacks,” Shin concluded.
NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport posted on Twitter Friday afternoon: “The surgery was more complicated than expected, with the need for screws complicating matters. The timetable is roughly 6 weeks, though Wilson will no doubt be determined to beat it.”
Six weeks would be Nov. 19.
Here are the Seahawks’ next six weeks:
Oct. 17 at Pittsburgh
Oct. 25 vs. New Orleans
Oct. 31 vs. Jacksonville
Nov. 7 Bye
Nov. 14 at Green Bay
Nov. 21 Arizona
It seems certain Geno Smith, who turns 31 Sunday, will be Seattle’s starting quarterback when the team next plays, Oct. 17 at Pittsburgh. It will be Smith’s first start since Dec. 3, 2017, for the New York Giants against Oakland.
Smith played the final quarter for Wilson, who got hurt midway through the third quarter of the Seahawks’ 26-17 loss to the Los Angeles Rams Thursday night. Smith, who has started 31 games including 29 with the New York Jets his first two years in the league, in 2013 and ‘14, went 5 for 5 passing on his first drive replacing Wilson. Smith threw a 23-yard touchdown pass to DK Metcalf to end the 98-yard drive that briefly got the Seahawks to within 16-14 of the Rams early in the fourth quarter.
That was Smith’s first playing time in a game that was still in doubt in the last 3 1/2 seasons. He had mop-up duty in one Seahawks game late last season.
“I’ll be ready,” Smith said after Thursday’s game.
Barring a recovery that would astound doctors, Wilson’s streak of 165 consecutive starts in the regular-season and postseason to begin his career will end next week. His 149 consecutive regular-season starts is the NFL’s longest active one by 68 games over Tom Brady. Wilson’s regular-season games streak is the sixth-longest in league history. Brett Favre holds the NFL record with 297 consecutive starts from 1992-2010.
Holding and gripping a football proved impossible for Wilson during Thursday night’s game. That was after his hand hit the arm of Rams defensive tackle Aaron Donald. That was on the follow through of Wilson’s incomplete pass beyond Tyler Lockett with 7 minutes left in the third quarter.
Earlier Friday, a league source told The News Tribune Wilson was weighing multiple medical opinions in Los Angeles over possibly needing finger surgery and perhaps missing a month of this Seahawks season.
“The day is fluid. Russell is consulting with more than than one specialist,” the league source told the TNT earlier Friday afternoon during Wilson’s day in L.A. seeing doctors following the injury to the tendon in the middle finger of his throwing hand.
“Just making certain he has all the information to make the right decision,” the source said.
One of the specialists the indispensable, $140 million franchise quarterback saw Friday in California Dr. Shin, a hand specialist with the Kerlan-Jobe Orthopaedic Center in L.A.
Thursday night, Seahawks coach Pete Carroll said when asked if Wilson would need surgery “I don’t know.
“He’s already traveling to get it looked at by a specialist and make sure we know exactly what we need to know so the decision can be really clear,” Carroll said Friday morning.
“He’s getting looked at by an expert this morning, then I will know more. I don’t know much more than (Thursday) night.
“We’ve just got to wait and see what they assess.”
Turns out, Wilson saw more than one expert, and he had the surgery.
This story was originally published October 8, 2021 at 6:54 PM.
