I’m always fascinated by how long it takes everyone (fans, reporters, coaches) to realize the severity of an injury and come to grips with the fact that a particular player will absolutely not play this weekend. It seems like a player can have even a gruesome injury and we’ll all still hold out hope right up until game day morning that maybe, just maybe, he’ll make a miraculous return. Such is the case with Cowboys RB DeMarco Murray today. News broke Monday that Murray has a fractured 4th metacarpal in his left hand and will require surgery. According to this story on ESPN from Todd Archer, nobody knows if Murray will play this weekend or not. I am here to tell you that Murray will not play on Sunday.
In case you don’t know, the metacarpals are the bones that span from the base of your fingers down towards your wrist. Those bony ridges on the back of your hands… yeah, those are your metacarpals. Metacarpal fractures often require surgery, and that surgery typically comes with some hardware. Usually players cannot play through metacarpal fractures the way they sometimes can with finger fractures. This might be especially true at the running back position where the player needs a fully functioning hand in order to take handoffs, secure the ball, catch passes, and block.
As always, I have historical examples of running back metatarsal fractures. I even think that they’re pretty damn good historical examples. Trouble is, I don’t have many of them. Two to be exact. In 2011, RB Willis McGahee broke the 4th metatarsal of his right hand. McGahee had a metal plate and five pins installed surgically. Most reports at the time said he’d miss at least one week, with some reports putting it much higher, perhaps even more than one month. McGahee surprised everyone by returning after missing only one week. Also in 2011, RB Ryan Torain fractured his left, 3rd metacarpal (not 4th like Murray and McGahee). Torain had four screws installed during surgery. He was originally expected to miss 7-10 days, but ended up missing three preseason games. Yes, you can argue that preseason games might not be the same as regular season games and that a team can afford to be overly cautious during the preseason. However, I’d point out that Torain’s first game back was the final preseason game, and if ever there was a game to hold players out of, that’s often the one, so the three week absence most likely reflects his true health.
Like I say, that’s a dangerously small sample size. Future running backs with metacarpal fractures might miss less time than McGahee’s one week, or more time than Torain’s three weeks. But until that happens, 1-3 weeks is a pretty damn fine return-to-play estimate. I’m more inclined to believe this historical (albeit limited) range than I am to believe anything Jerry Jones or anyone within the organization says this week. So let’s just stop the crazy chatter early and assume that Murray is out for Week 16, okay?
