Steve Avila may have gone to the Matthew Stafford School of Toughness because he desperately wanted to play through his knee injury on Sunday night. Avila sprained his MCL in the first half but it wasn’t until the third quarter that he was ruled out.
That’s because he tried to keep playing into the second half, much to the chagrin of the team’s training staff.
Sean McVay said Monday that Avila finished the first half and at halftime, he was told the second-year guard would be out a few weeks. Yet, on the first play of the second half, Avila was on the field – a complete surprise to McVay. Avila had to be pulled out of the game despite his desire to stay out there.
“Yeah, he did play through the half and then they tell me he’s going to be out for a handful of weeks and then the first play of the second half, he’s out there,” McVay said. “We had to yank him out. It’s a credit to how much he wants to be out there so I think that’s a positive problem but definitely got [VP of Sports Medicine and Performance] Reggie Scott worked up, but it shows you how tough Steve is.”
Avila is expected to miss 4-6 weeks, so it’s not exactly a minor injury that he attempted to play through. The Rams were smart to save him from himself by pulling him out, preventing any further damage to the guard’s knee.
Until Avila can return, Beaux Limmer will step in at center and Jonah Jackson will slide back to guard, just as he did on Sunday night after Avila went down.