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Nichols reveals he had been playing with broken finger

WINNIPEG — The narrative that dominated all the lead up to the Western Semi-Final last week surrounded the health of Matt Nichols and specifically his injured calf.

But as the Blue Bombers cleaned out their locker room Monday afternoon following their loss to Edmonton the day before, those who cover the team found out that the pivot had been playing with a broken finger for quite some time.

“Honestly, the first couple of weeks it was a little rough,” Nichols said of the broken finger on his throwing hand. “It was extremely painful basically all up my hand. Aside from that, just walking around I didn’t really feel it. When I applied pressure on the ball and when the ball left my hand it was pretty painful. Last night was definitely the best it’s felt. It’s a broken bone.

“So I think it takes six to eight weeks for a broken bone to heal, plus I was playing with it, constantly taking a pounding on it, which slows down the healing process a little bit but I felt like a couple weeks really off of limited throwing I think really helped it out a lot. Last night was definitely the best it’s felt. I didn’t have any issues.”

 

The injury to Nichols hand happened Winnipeg’s contest at home against the Tiger-Cats in Week 16. The team had a few days off after that game and the Bombers pivot tried to rest his hand as much as he could but says the first week of practice was “pretty brutal.”

“Luckily, the bottom fingers are the least important for a quarterback,” Nichols explained. “Had it been a broken bone in one of my top fingers or thumb it would have been a lot more difficult. Aside from the pain when it left my hand it didn’t really affect the ball coming off my hand. With that glove I was wearing it gave me a bit of grip there that I needed. It was kind of a guide finger anyways. I thought aside from me dealing with the pain I don’t think it affected how I threw the ball, really the entire time I was playing with it.”

Nichols continued to play through the pain of the broken finger and only missed the Bombers’ season finale because of an injury to his calf.