The initial diagnosis of Michael Vick’s injury was a fractured right hand. However, a CT scan today revealed that there was in fact no break and that the QB had only sustained a contusion to the hand. Andy Reid explained what led to the faulty diagnosis.
“Today, he had a scan and it showed there was no break,” Reid said. “It was a blood vessel sitting above the bone. That happens at times with X-rays. The blood vessel makes it look like it was a fracture. There is still a bunch of swelling. It is sensitive to the touch. The positive is there is not a fracture there.”
While the news that there is no break is certainly very positive for the next several weeks as the recovery time will certainly be shorter for a contusion, but we also can’t downplay what a contusion means. There’s significant swelling and pain which at this point make it very likely that he would struggle to grip a ball with his right hand. While that isn’t his throwing hand, he still has to take snaps with it and secure the ball in case of a hit as well. If he can’t do those things, obviously he can’t play QB.
So, now it’s all down to how the hand responds and how quickly the swelling goes down. Whether or not he plays next week against San Francisco is entirely dependent on that. However, the good news is that since the hand is not broken, this will be a short term injury at best. That’s contrary to the initial reports that he could be out for up to a month.