Never miss a moment! Get the CBS Sports App for the fastest scores, breaking news alerts and inside access to your favorite sports and teams.
Star Seattle Seahawks defensive end Cliff Avril was placed on injured reserve earlier this week after he suffered a freak injury during the Seahawks' Week 4 victory over the Indianapolis Colts, which led to numbness in his hands. He sat out the team's Week 5 game, and in the lead-up to their showdown with the Giants this weekend, coach Pete Carroll said some pretty scary stuff about Avril's football future.
"Cliff Avril will go on IR," Carroll said in an interview with Sirius XM NFL Radio. "He's seeing a bunch of doctors, seriously looking at a big decision." According to NFL.com's Ian Rapoport, that big decision is a potential retirement from the NFL due to the injury and numbness issues.
Avril, though, says that is definitively not in the cards right now.
"You might see me at the end of this year," he said.
That would obviously be great news for the Seahawks, whose defense is worlds better whenever Avril is on the field. The more important thing here, though, is that Avril gets himself fully healthy and is able to live his life. Once that's taken care of, he can worry about getting back on the field.