Russell Wilson was forced to leave the field after suffering an injury to his throwing hand as his Seattle Seahawks lost 26-17 to the visiting Los Angeles Rams in their divisional battle on Thursday.
The quarterback was hurt by contact on the middle digit of his right hand in the third quarter, with Seattle coach Pete Carroll describing it afterwards as a “badly sprained finger."
It's the first time in 165 games that the 32-year-old has left the field early with injury, and the irony wasn't lost on Carroll in his post-match press conference.
"This is a significant night because Russell wasn't able to finish the second half," he said.
"He's got a badly-sprained finger that we need to figure out. There's work to be done in assessing all of that. Russell is one of the great healers of all time, and he'll do whatever he can to get back as soon as absolutely possible.
"He wasn't able to hold onto the football the way he needed to throw it, because we needed to throw it all over the place, and we didn't know what he would be able to do, he was just unsure," he continued.
"I trust him. If he could have, he would have. Russ knows his body. He knows what he can do. He knew that this wouldn't help us tonight."
Russell added it was "too early" to say whether his star performer would need surgery.
Wilson had opened the scoring in the second quarter by throwing a 19-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver DK Metcalf, with the Seahawks defence holding the Rams to just three points from Matt Gay’s 31-yard field goal before half-time.
Los Angeles responded in the second half as quarterback Matthew Stafford threw for 365 yards, connecting with DeSean Jackson on a 68-yarder that led to a five-yard touchdown run by Darrell Henderson.
The visitors moved ahead 16-7 later in the third quarter after Stafford hit Tyler Higbee for a score, with Seattle replying in the fourth via a 23-yard pass from Wilson’s replacement Geno Smith to Metcalf for a touchdown.
The Rams added another touchdown and a field goal either side of a Seahawks field goal.
The defeat meant the Seahawks fell to a losing record of 2-3 for the season and are bottom of the NFC West, while the Rams are 2-0 on the road and sit second in the division at 4-1.
