Brady on the practice field with his teammates. (Kim Tunnicliffe/WBZ NewsRadio 1030)
BOSTON (WBZ-AM) -- Tom Brady's mysterious hand injury, which kept him out of Thursday's team practice, has a lot of people speculating about the QB's availability for the AFC Championship game Sunday--but in true Patriots fashion, there's still a lot we don't know.
There's been speculation of a dislocation, a jam, a laceration--but it could be any of those things, and could affect finger or thumb.
Dr. Selene Parekh, cofounder of The Fantasy Doctors and professor of Orthopoedic Surgery at Duke University, told WBZ NewsRadio 1030's Adam Kaufman that, from afar, the injury seems like a crush-type injury involving Brady's thumb.
"That's really where the concern is, if the thumb is involved versus any of the other digits of his throwing hand," Dr. Parekh said. "You really need your thumb to control that ball, so depending on how much pain he's having, you then have concerns about his ability to grip the ball, throw the ball, and then obviously have any kind of control and accuracy come this weekend."
Kaufman asked Dr. Parekh if there was anything team doctors could do to manage that pain.
"You could put on some topical creams and ointments to try to numb up the thumb, but there's no real injection, per se, because this does not involve the joint itself," he said. "It's more of a soft-tissue injury of the thumb itself."
Kaufman and Dr. Parekh also talked about the potential difference between this injury and Brady's past injuries, the effect of the weather, and what impact it all could have on the performance of a quarterback who has been playing at MVP-level all season.
Listen to Adam's full interview with Dr. Parekh here: