Malcom Floyd Cervical Injury vs. Philadelphia Eagles

            With another NFL week in the books comes multiple injuries to report on. One of the scariest moments of the week came during the Eagles game. Malcom Floyd, the wide receiver with the San Diego Chargers, took a monster hit in the third quarter, leaving him on the ground for several moments. The chargers looked as if they were completing yet another long pass over the middle when Floyd was sandwiched between Eagles safety Nate Allen and LB Demeco Ryans. As Floyd tucked his head to avoid the hit from Allen, his head directly impacted the shoulder pad of Ryans, producing what looked to be a nasty neck injury. The hit is definitely tough to watch. Even though Ryans led with his shoulder, the fact Floyd was being pulled down by Allen at the same time put his body in a dangerous spot.

Floyd remained on the field for about 10 minutes.  During that time doctors and other medical personnel rushed to his aid being sure to stabilize his neck. With all of the head injuries happening in the NFL over the last few years, helmets are now made with a special feature that allows for easy removal of the face mask without removal of the helmet. Removing the helmet on the field would cause the players cervical spine to move into extension relative to the shoulder pads. With any serious on-field head or neck injury, the goal of the medical personnel is to keep the spine immobilized in neutral to maximize stability until farther evaluation can be done. They were also checking his sensation and ability to move his fingers and toes which would likely be compromised if a spinal cord injury had occurred. Transient loss of motor function with a burning pain in one arm is the most common cervical injury in the NFL. The injury is often to referred to as a "stinger" or "burner." The duration of symptoms is from 2-10 minutes to 24 hours with function returning from the shoulder to the hands. 

 Via @bleacherreport on twitter

           

 Floyd was carted off the field on a stretcher and taken to the hospital for farther evaluation. His injury does not to appear to be as serious as first thought to be and did not require an overnight stay. He was able to rejoin his team for the flight back to San Diego. "He's doing fine," Chargers coach Mike Mccoy said after the game, via The Associated Press. "All the tests right now look good. It's great for the organization to go out and get a win for Malcom. I'll leave it at that and update you as time goes on."

If you want to check out full video of the injury: http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap1000000244419/article/malcom-floyd-injures-neck-in-san-diego-chargers-win