Washington Huskies Football: Austin Seferian-Jenkins Fractures Pinky Finger

November 02, 2012; Berkeley, CA, USA; Washington Huskies tight end Austin Seferian-Jenkins (88) runs with the ball against California Golden Bears linebacker Robert Mullins (37) during the first quarter at Memorial Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports

The news has just broken that Washington’s junior tight end Austin Seferian-Jenkins has fractured his pinky finger and will require surgery. He will miss at least a sizable chunk of time, but the exact timetable is unknown. It had already been previously revealed that ASJ had hurt his finger, but Sark has been fairly nonchalant in discussing the injury. Now it is clear that the injury will have a serious impact on Washington’s season, especially if the star pass-catcher and likely future NFL first-round pick misses games.

Coach Sarkisian’s team had been fairly fortunate as far as injuries are concerned during the off season, but there are few players on the roster more valuable than ASJ. He provides the Huskies with a guaranteed mismatch in the passing game at a position where serious offensive production isn’t always a given. At 6’6″ and 270+ pounds, but with the hands of an NFL wide receiver, there is no better tight end in the country.

Hopefully the extremely vague “No timetable for return” and “out indefinitely” type phrases end up indicating a recovery period of a few weeks rather than a few months. The grimness with which the news has been given and received leads me to speculate that ASJ could be expected to the opener and perhaps a few games after that, but I don’t see a broken pinky keeping him sidelined all the way into the Pac-12 conference schedule.

I will have more posted on this injury as soon as additional information is available.