Ouch USC's Hackett may be out for year

[Russ Smith]

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/news/story?id=3241256

Possible spinal column fracture. He had a hip injury and an ankle injury and they'd done x rays and MRI's but apparently they didn't catch the spinal injury he actually played 24 minutes on this Saturday.

Scary stuff.

 

[Russ Smith]

LA Times says stress fracture in his back, out indefinitely with back spasms needs to do a core training program to strengthen the core before he can play again. No timetable set yet. Also said he had a fractured vertebra his junior year in HS and missed 2 months, he said it's not as painful now as that injury so he's pretty confident he'll be ok.

But it would appear he's going to miss at least the UCLA game on Sunday if not more.

Back injuries are a scary thing hope the kid takes this seriously and rests instead of trying to continue playing through the pain.

Edit Scott Wolf's USC blog says Hackett is telling teammates he's done for the year. Having had the back injury in HS he wants to make sure he's fully healed so it would appear unlikely he's going to play again this season but it's not set in stone.

 

[Russ Smith]

LA times says Hackett is out for the year.

Daily News writer Scott Wolf said he may have played his last game for USc he's contemplating a 500K offer to play in Italy next year.