Fan-fucking-tastic! Green Bay Packers linebacker Clay Matthews broke his thumb on the final play of the third quarter on Sunday.
There was hope he might be able to play with a cast, but that ain’t happening. ESPN is reporting that Matthews will miss a month, which also likely means he needs surgery to repair the injury.
Matthews broke his thumb on a sack of Matthew Stafford. He was unblocked on the play and went to the locker room shortly after.
At his Monday press conference, Packers coach Mike McCarthy didn’t have anything definitive to say about Matthews, other than he hoped the injury wasn’t season-ending.
“I’m hopeful it’s not season-ending,” McCarthy said Monday. “I think we’re all hopeful, but you have to get all the opinions and make sure you always do right by the player.”
So now what?
Well, Nick Perry and Mike Neal is now what. The good news is, both guys had really good games on Sunday. Perry had two sacks and Neal had one.
Is the Packers defense going to be as good without Matthews? No. But if Perry and Neal play like they did on Sunday, then they should be alright. Frankly, I think we’ve now seen that Morgan Burnett is more important to the D than Matthews is.