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Pete Carroll responded to the Ian Rapoport report that Percy Harvin has a slight tear of his hip labrum this afternoon in the Seahawks' post-practice press conference. As Eric Williams passes on, Carroll said:
"Percy's got a hip issue that we're dealing with, that came up while he was working out during the summer. And we're trying to figure it out. We're going to do everything we can to make the right decision to help him, and take care of him in every way.
He was working out just a week or so ago, and going full speed. But it was bothering him enough, and we took some looks at it. And we're going to try and figure out what are the right procedures to take care of him, and get him back on the field."
When asked if surgery is an option or a possibility, Carroll responded:
"It may be; we'll find out. We're going to go ahead and do it step by step right now. I know he was working full speed just a few days ago, but we need to take care of him. So we're going to take every precaution to do that.
Right now we need to get more information. We don't know enough right now. So we'll just wait and see. The good part is it's really early, and we have a lot of time to get him ready."
As Tom Pelissaro points out, Harvin did miss time during Seahawks OTAs earlier this summer with what was described then as a "little bit of a hip flexor" issue, but evidently this issue has persisted.
I've heard a pretty wide range of diagnoses for how long Harvin would be out if he were to require surgery, and the time-frames range from as short as two weeks to as long as four months. I'm guessing the Seahawks will get a plan-of-action together soon (hence the seeking of a 2nd opinion) and decide whether or not they want to (need to) do surgery, and from there, we'll get a better idea of how much time (if any) Harvin will miss. It could be a simple as non-surgery with rehab/rest, or, obviously, it could be a much more serious matter that keeps him sidelined for a significant amount of time.
Certainly not an ideal way to start training camp, but as has been pointed out in threads here this afternoon, Seattle does have solid depth at the position. If Harvin is forced to miss some time this season (fingers crossed it's a limited amount), Seattle can still lean, hopefully with some of the effectiveness that we saw last season, on a run-first ball control offense until they get their new X-factor type weapon back.