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ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Over the past week or so, news trickled out that Michigan football had a potentially devastating injury on its hands.
Though senior quarterback Cade McNamara returns, all eyes are on the quarterback competition that was set to take place this spring between the incumbent and the former five-star in J.J. McCarthy. However, it turns out that McCarthy is going to have to sit this one out — for now.
McCarthy was reported to have some kind of shoulder injury that is precluding him from participating in the spring competition. Some reports indicated that he would have surgery, but would be back by fall camp. However, while head coach Jim Harbaugh acknowledged the injury, he refuted the notion that McCarthy would have surgery, noting that he can recover without having to go under the knife.
“Yeah, J.J. has a lingering arm soreness from the season,” Harbaugh said. “Just want to figure out, get some clarity on what was causing that. And, we did. Consulted all the top experts around the country. We’ve got a short-term plan, got a long-term plan for his arm health. Working the plan. No surgery. People are reporting that there’s surgery. It’s a non-surgical plan.”
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Harbaugh isn’t sure whether or not it was a single hit that caused the injury or if it was something prolonged that occurred. He says that McCarthy is partaking in practice, but he’s just not throwing at the moment.
As far as his return to full strength, Harbaugh can’t give an answer just yet, but given that there’s a lot of time between now and fall camp, he’s elated that McCarthy will have plenty of time to recover and be ready for the season.
“Being March 8, like we would be with any of our players, it’ll be the plan that the experts have put in place,” Harbaugh said. “The longer the better, for me. It’s March 8. Make sure that everything’s done in the best interest of J.J.”
Michigan football will hold its prodigal annual spring game on April 2 at The Big House.
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