The Houston Texans lost a major player this week to
injury. Jerome Mathis (5-11, 172) has a fractured
venicular bone, a very small bone in the top of the foot,
in his left foot. Some reports are calling the
injury a stress fracture.
Mathis will undergo surgery today in Houston to repair the
fracture, but will likely miss up to 5 games of the regular season. Mathis is a
major part of the Texans special teams program, and made the Pro Bowl in his
rookie season last year as a kick returner.
Mathis finished second in the NFL with an amazing average
of 28.6 yards per return. During the 2004 season
Mathis returned a total of 54 kickoffs for 1,542 yards and 2 touchdowns, as well
as 12 punts for 68 yards. He also caught five passes for 63 yards and a
touchdown.
“Since Jerome has come back from the
Pro Bowl, he has struggled with his ankle,” Kubiak said in an article released
by the Texans. "We took some time off, rehabbed it, did everything we could, it
was making progress. Jerome had an accident along the way, but he came out to
practice. It continued to bother him and we took an extensive look at it last
week and unfortunately we found out what it was, a stress fracture.”
The article also says that the
Texans have been running WR Jake Schifino and rookie RB Wali Lundi in the return
positions, but it will still be a huge loss for the Texans.
According to the team’s orthopedist
Tom Clanton, Mathis will have to stay off his foot for the next eight weeks.
However, he also remarked that if the foot is responding well then it may be
sooner than that. Even so, with Mathis staying off his foot for that amount of
time, there will need to be several weeks of rehab following his recovery from
surgery.
Mathis has been experiencing pain in
his left foot since the Pro Bowl in February. Since then he has also been
involved in a motorcycle accident where he injured his hands. Due to that
accident his missed several of the voluntary official team activities the Texans
have been holding. The Texans’ head athletic trainer, Kevin Batin, says that
based on examinations the injury is more likely to have occurred during the Pro
Bowl rather than Mathis’ motorcycle accident.
This is just one of a few other injuries that have affected
the Texans. Defensive tackle Travis Johnson became afflicted with a strained
right calf during Wednesday’s practice, but he was still able to put weight on
it. The extent of the injury has not been reported by the Texans as of this
time. Johnson was the number one pick by the Texans during the 2005 draft.