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Chargers’ RB Najee Harris suffers eye injury ahead of regular season: What impact this will have on their game
Najee Harris suffered a superficial eye injury from a fireworks incident but is not expected to miss any games.
The Los Angeles Chargers avoided what could have been a catastrophic injury to their rushing offense for this season when it was recently revealed that their running back Najee Harris faced a fireworks incident on the Fourth of July, which affected his eye. What initially started as fan speculation turned out to be true in his agent Doug Hendrickson’s conversation with ESPN on Thursday (July 10).
Najee Harris’s injury
As per Hendrickson’s conversation with ESPN on Thursday, Najee Harris suffered a “superficial” eye injury as a result of a fireworks incident on the Fourth of July in Antioch, California. Turns out Harris was one of the lucky ones as a “mishap resulted to injuries to several attendees”, one of whom has now been hospitalized as a result of losing all his fingers in the accident, as reported by ESPN.
Harris earlier signed a one-year deal with the Chargers back in March and played his first four seasons with the Pittsburgh Steelers.
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How will this impact the Chargers?
NFL insider Ian Rapoport claimed in a conversation on the NFL Network that despite Harris's agent calling it a "superficial" injury, it is far more serious than previously anticipated.
“My understanding of where he stands is he’s not expected to miss significant time," Ian Rapoport said. "Now, there was a fireworks incident. It does sound like there’s been some damage. ‘Superficial’ is the word his agent Doug Hendrickson used. But from what I understand, he will be on the field sooner rather than later and is not expected to miss games.
"Certainly, some people close to Najee Harris were not as fortunate in what sounded like an unbelievably scary, scary situation. As far as Harris goes, specifically, his injuries are considered relatively minor. Should be back on the field soon,” he added.
Given Harris is only expected to get a slow start in training camp, he won’t be missing any games as a result of his injury. This means that the chargers might be compelled to rely heavily on first-round rookie Omarion Hampton until Harris is fully back in the game.
By Stuti Gupta
