Earlier this season, Packers tight end Jermichael Finley spoke openly about his children and family not wanting him to play football anymore.
Finley said seeing his children like that shook him up. He may not have to worry about making that difficult choice anymore, because it may have been made for him.
Wednesday morning the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that if Jermichael Finley did suffer a spinal cord bruise, as most reports have claimed, the likelihood of him returning to the field without having to undergo surgery is slim, according to a highly regarded spinal surgeon who has studied NFL neck injuries.
Wellington Hsu, an endowed professor at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and practicing surgeon with offices in Chicago, told the Journal Sentinel that when a football player suffers bruising of the spinal cord, that means there’s something wrong in the spinal canal that must be corrected.
“If everything is normal there should be enough space in the spinal canal to absorb the force of that hit,” Hsu said Tuesday. “If there isn’t enough space, then the spinal canal doesn’t take the jolt very well.”
Not enough information is known at this time about the severity of Finley’s injury to credibly predict how long he’ll be out.
I don’t expect to see Finley again this season, and I wouldn’t be shocked if his career truly is over.