Feeley has second surgery

By John McMullen
The Phanatic Magazine

Eagles backup quarterback A.J. Feeley underwent a second surgery Friday to repair a broken bone in his left hand.

Feeley originally had surgery in late August after breaking the third metacarpal bone in his non-throwing hand during the Eagles' preseason finale. His hand began to swell after practice Thursday and doctors felt the screws implanted in the original procedure came loose.

“He was doing great with the rehab,” Eagles trainer Rick Burkholder said. “Yesterday after practice, his hand swelled. He saw Dr. Peter DeLuca, our team physician, who referred him to Dr. Taras. This morning, Dr. Taras felt that some of the screws in his hand may be starting to back out a little bit. So, what he did was, he went in this morning and reinforced the surgery that he did two weeks ago. He put synthetic bone material in there, and a plate, just so he wouldn’t have any complications down the road. So, it was really a precautionary surgery to kind of give him the best chance throughout the season, and that happened this morning."

Feeley is still listed as questionable for Monday night's game against the Washington Redskins at Lincoln Financial Field but is unlikely to play and Burkholder downplayed fears that the Eagles rushed Feeley back.

“We wouldn’t have put him out there if we didn’t think he was safe,” Burkholder said. “You always take a chance when you put a guy back out there after surgery that something may need to be done. He might need more rehab, and it’s kind of a touch-and-feel thing for us to see where he is. But, he had no problems up until he swelled yesterday, and that was a little bit of a red flag for us, and we thought it was best to reinforce that thing this morning, not knowing what the future holds for him in terms of if he has to play for us.”

Rookie Kevin Kolb will be Donovan McNabb’s backup on Monday.