For the second straight season, All-Pro receiver DeAndre Hopkins fought through injury as the Houston Texans were being ushered out of the playoffs.
According to an interview with Hopkins via Mark Berman of Fox 26, the former 2013 first-round pick from Clemson played with a broken rib and a dislocated finger in the Texans’ 51-31 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs in the AFC divisional playoffs on Jan. 12 at Arrowhead Stadium.
“My teammates I saw out there was fighting with me,” Hopkins said Wednesday as he and his mother donated $45,000 to The Women’s Group in Houston. “They were giving everything they had out there. It was no question that I was going to stay in the locker room in the second half. It was out of the question, especially when my team needed me, even if my presence was out there. I was going to play for the guys out there with me.”
Hopkins caught nine passes for 118 yards and had a fumble.
“It’s tough,” Hopkins said. “It’s hard to breathe. It’s football. It’s an injury. So, it was nothing.”
With regards to Hopkins’ dislocated finger on his right hand, the Pro Bowler said he would play with seven fingers if necessary.
Said Hopkins: “I’d play with seven fingers if I had to, man. Any injury is tough. It’s a little bit more tougher when it’s the hand that you have to catch with. But it’s football. I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
In 2018’s AFC wild-card, the Texans lost 21-7 at home to the Indianapolis Colts. Hopkins battled the entire four quarters with a shoulder injury that kept him out of the Pro Bowl.
The injuries Hopkins sustained, while keeping him out of the Pro Bowl, should not prevent him from taking part in the Texans’ nine-week offseason workouts, which start in April.
