Panthers linebacker could play with fractured arm

Well the Carolina Panthers’ linebacker has less than two weeks to recover if he wants to play in the Super Bowl. When the former safety returned six years into his National Football League career to get his degree and walk at commencement in Athens, Mark Richt said, “He’s one of the greatest kids who ever came through here and one of the finest players who every came through here”.

Carolina Panthers linebacker Thomas Davis had to go to the locker room after injuring his right arm in the second quarter of the NFC Championship against the Arizona Cardinals.

The forearm is made up of two bones, the smaller ulna bone and the workhorse radius bone. So the Panthers would love to have him back for the Super Bowl next weekend.

“This is the ulna, which is where we think Thomas Davis had his fracture”, said Dr. Wallace Andrew, a surgeon at the Raleigh Orthopaedic Clinic.

“They were kind of picking on me and grabbing my arm and saying, you can’t retaliate now, you can’t do anything”, Davis said, smiling. Davis said after the game he fully expected to play in the February 7 Super Bowl because, “I believe in me”.

Davis’s arm was in a sling in the third quarter. Just having Davis able to play in some capacity will provide a boost for his teammates seeing their leader compete. “I don’t think anyone thinks he won’t”.

Andrew said Davis’s surgery stabilized the fracture, most likely using a steel compression plate and screws. It doesn’t sound like anything would keep Davis from playing in this game.

Even as Carolina played it coy with the extent of the injury Sunday, anyone who knew Davis didn’t have to possess a medical degree to know that the arm was broken.

While there are still some concerns, Davis seems determined to get back in time for the game, and with the dedication he is showing, he may just get there after all.