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Matthew Stafford’s thumb injury leaves his status uncertain

Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford played through a right thumb injury Sunday until he couldn’t. The question now becomes: Will he miss any more time with the injury?

“We’ll see what the significance of that injury is, but I don’t want to speculate until I have full clarification from the doctors,” Rams coach Sean McVay said, via Sarah Barshop of ESPN. “But obviously he wasn’t able to return.”

Stafford hit his thumb on Micah Parsons’ arm with 5:15 left until halftime on an incompletion initially ruled a fumble but overturned by replay. He was seen flexing his right hand and holding his thumb as he left the field. Then, on a two-point attempt with 4 seconds left in the first half, Stafford hit his right thumb on Mazi Smith’s shoulder pads on his follow-through.

Stafford returned for the second half with tape on his thumb. But after banging it on the turf on a reception and dive into the end zone on a trick play on a two-point conversion with 11:29 left in the third quarter, Stafford left for the training room.

The Rams listed him as questionable to return, but his hand was heavily taped as he watched the rout from the sidelines.

McVay said he doesn’t know yet whether Stafford will miss time with the injury.

“If in fact it is going to be an injury that leaves him out, the first thing he’s worried about is feeling like ‘I’m going to let people down,’” McVay said. “This guy is the ultimate competitor. Couldn’t respect or love anybody as much as I love this guy in regards to what he means to this team as a person first and then as a player second.

“And so hopefully he’s going to be OK. If not, then we’ll figure out what the next move is for us, and sometimes that’s how things go and that’s the unfortunate part of sports depending upon how we move forward.”

Stafford missed eight games last season with a spinal cord contusion that ended his season.