Seattle Seahawks to Place Defensive End Cliff Avril on Injured Reserve Due to His Neck Injury
The Seattle Seahawks will have to play without one of their best pass rushers for a significant amount of time this season.
The move hasn't been made official yet, but Seahawks coach Pete Carroll has confirmed that they are placing defensive end Cliff Avril on the injured reserve list while he continues to deal with a neck and spine injury.
"We haven't done the business part of this yet, but we've already talked to Cliff about putting him on the IR list," Carroll said on Thursday, via the Seahawks official website.
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Avril's neck injury is clearly more serious than initially thought, but this may not be the end of the season for him. The Pro Bowler is eligible to return to the active roster after eight weeks, and Carroll has not ruled out the possibility of bringing him back later in the season.
Right now, Avril still hasn't decided if he's going to have surgery on his neck
"That's really up to the docs and Cliff and all that kind of stuff," Carroll said. "The IR thing gives him (eight) weeks at least to figure out whatever else we can figure out. But he's not sure what's best for him right now, he's trying to find that out. And we're hopefully giving him a good sense that we're going to support him all the way throughout and figure out what's best," he added,
Avril sustained the injury during the Seahawks' 46–18 victory over the Indianapolis Colts earlier this month and he hasn't played or practiced since.
Meanwhile, NFL Network's Ian Rapoport has reported that Avril is mulling retirement because of the injury, but the Pro Bowl defensive end has denied he's thinking about hanging up his football cleats.
Third-year defensive end Frank Clark should continue to start while Avril is on the shelf.
