Green Bay Packers pro bowl linebacker Clay Mathews had an incredible season last year with 13.5 sacks. The one thing that really made it an impressive was that he played the second half of the season with a stress fracture in his shin and didn’t let up one bit with his production.
From week nine all the way to the Super Bowl Mathews appeared on the Packers injury report as probable with a a shin injury.
“I don’t make a big deal of it,” Matthews said to the Green Bay Press-Gazette on Tuesday. “(It happened) some time in the middle of the season. You can’t do anything about it. I was just taking practices off and showing up on game day and giving it my all.”
Mathews brought up the injury because he was asked how the loss of defensive lineman Cullen Jenkins in free agency will affect his play since when Jenkins wasn’t in the line up Mathews’ stats slightly dropped.
“I also had a stress fracture in four of those games,” Matthews said. “But nobody knows that. I had a stress fracture in my leg. A sore shin as you guys call it, but that’s all right. Obviously, I’m not making excuses. Cullen is a terrific athlete, and we’re definitely going to take a hit in our defensive line, but at the same time I think they have confidence in the guys coming up.”
It’s really scary to think about how good Mathews was when he was injured. Opposing offenses should be even more concerened about him coming after them now that he’s healthy again.
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