Seahawks coach Pete Carroll revealed Wednesday that star running back Marshawn Lynch underwent successful surgery on his abdominal injury Wednesday morning and will miss at least three-to-four weeks.
Lynch sat out Sunday’s 29-13 victory over San Francisco because of the injury. He played through it in Seattle’s 39-32 loss to Arizona two weeks ago, then was a late scratch against the 49ers after being expected to play. Lynch flew to Philadelphia on Monday to see Dr. William Meyers, a specialist in core and muscle injuries who has worked extensively with professional athletes. Lynch was evaluated Tuesday, then had surgery Wednesday.
“He had his surgery and he’s going to stay back east for a number of days until it’s time to come back, and we’ll see what happens when he returns,” Carroll said. “The doctor was very optimistic about a quick recovery. That could mean within three or four weeks or something like that. There’s a chance, so we’ll see how everything works out. Other than that everything went really well.”
Carroll said Lynch wasn’t specifically diagnosed with a sports hernia, but that it’s related to that. He did not know the exact definition of the injury or surgery, but did say, “The doc got in there, he fixed a couple things and was able to really tack it down real nice and was really fired up that he’s going to get back.”
The 29-year-old Lynch was Seattle’s workhorse the previous five seasons. He missed just one game after being acquired from Buffalo midway through the 2010 season, racking up 5,930 yards and 54 touchdowns in 75 games. However, he missed two games earlier in the season because of a hamstring injury before sitting out Sunday’s game against San Francisco. This season Lynch has just 417 yards in seven games and both his yards per game (79.1-59.6) and yards per carry (4.4-3.8) are down from the previous five seasons.
Lynch will remain on Seattle’s roster and not be placed on injured reserve in the hope he’ll be able to return this season. Carroll said there’s a chance Lynch will miss the rest of the season, but that he didn’t expect that to happen.
While Lynch is out the Seahawks will turn to Thomas Rawls as the primary ball carrier. The undrafted rookie has been a revelation with 604 yards on 101 carries. That included 209 yards in last weekend’s victory, which was the second-highest single-game total in franchise history.
“We’re pretty confident,” an understated Carroll said about moving forward with Rawls. “He’s done very well. He’s been consistent and whenever he’s been given a real good shot he’s come through in a big way. I’m excited for him to have another opportunity to go out, see our guys block for him and see what we can get done again. Not every game is going to be like [Sunday], of course, but he certainly gives us a chance to run the ball like we’d like to, and our hopes are very high that he’s going to do very well.”
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