As the interceptions and untimely poor throws piled up for Chase Daniel late in Missouri’s season, Tiger fans began to wonder if the senior quarterback was playing with an injury. It turns out, he was.
While training for the next chapter of his football career in Houston, Daniel revealed to the Tribune that he sprained a ligament at the base of his right thumb - on his throwing hand - late in the season. Until now, the injury existed outside the program only in rumors, having gone unrevealed publicly by Daniel or Tigers Coach Gary Pinkel.
It wasn’t a secret injury, but I did hurt my thumb,
Daniel said in a phone interview on Friday. I don’t know when it was, but it got hurt pretty bad. That’s not an excuse for me throwing interceptions, but it wasn’t a secret injury. And I wouldn’t blame all" the interceptions "on the injury.
Daniel said he was unsure how or when the injury occurred exactly, saying only, It happened toward the last quarter of the year, probably during the last four games.
Missouri head trainer Rex Sharp recalled the injury happening early in the Big 12 championship game against Oklahoma, Missouri’s second-to-last game of the season.
Once X-rays and other tests revealed no further damage, Daniel wore a cast for the next week and underwent a daily treatment session to help alleviate any pain, Sharp said. The injury did not require surgery.
We put a cast on it, as we often do with a sprained thumb,
Sharp said. Though it wasn’t your typical sprained thumb. This was at the base of the thumb, where the thumb and index finger come together at that joint. We wanted to make sure he didn’t have anything broken back into the wrist. He didn’t.
We often put a cast on things like that for three or four days,
Sharp added, just like we do the high ankle sprains, just to get it calmed down a little bit.
Daniel said the injury forced him to change his grip on the ball but downplayed its impact on his passing mechanics and late-season accuracy issues. After completing 76.8 percent of his passes (307 of 400) through Missouri’s first 11 games of the season, Daniel’s accuracy mark fell to 60.9 (78 of 128) in the team’s final three games, losses to Kansas and Oklahoma and the overtime Alamo Bowl victory over Northwestern. Seven of Daniel’s Big 12-leading 18 interceptions came in those final three games.
I played through it,
he said. Honestly, it’s not that big of a deal. I don’t blame" the injury "on me throwing interceptions. It was just poor decision-making.
But it wasn’t the most comfortable thing in the world,
he added. I had to loosen my grip on the ball a lot more than I wanted. But I just made do and still made a lot of throws. I still threw for 39 touchdowns and more yards than I did last year, so it wasn’t hurt too bad.
Sharp also downplayed the injury’s significance.
Honestly, if he had trouble with it, he certainly didn’t complain,
Sharp said. I have no doubt it hurt, but that’s football.
For the last few years, Pinkel has been candid about player injuries, typically giving the media an NFL-style weekly injury report during the regular season. It would make sense, however, to conceal an injury to a quarterback’s throwing hand, but Sharp maintained the sprain wasn’t severe enough to disclose.
Gary’s pretty good about revealing everything,
Sharp said. The injury was insignificant" enough "that we didn’t want to make a big deal out of it. I know Chase didn’t want to either.
The injury hasn’t bothered Daniel lately, he said. For the last week, he’s been in Houston training for Saturday’s East-West Shrine Game and next month’s NFL scouting combine. He’s been throwing twice a day without experiencing pain.
It’s been a great week of throwing for me,
Daniel said.
