When the Alabama football team takes the field to play against Washington on Saturday in the semifinal round of the College Football Playoff, defensive lineman Dakota Ball won’t be able to play with his Crimson Tide teammates. The senior suffered a finger injury recently that forced him to wear a gigantic bandage over his entire left hand during the team’s Peach Bowl media day on Thursday.
But that injury didn’t take place as a result of something that happened in practice or during a game this season. Instead, AL.com reports it’s the result of a freak accident that left him with just nine fingers.
According to Ball, the accident took place about two weeks ago when he was hunting with a friend in Calhoun, Georgia during some downtime in Alabama’s practice schedule. He was holding a 12-gauge shotgun in his hand when it accidentally fired and took off one of his fingers. The index finger on his left hand is now gone forever.
"It’s completely gone," he told reporters on Thursday. "I shot it right at the knuckle and blew it off."
He explained how he did it, too. "I was tying a rope around the barrel and around the stock to keep the shotgun from falling out of my lap," he said. "I was tying rope around the barrel and it just went off. I didn’t have my hand on the trigger."
Ball and his friend rushed to the hospital immediately, but his finger was, in his words, "hanging by a piece of skin." Doctors were unable to reattach it, and Ball said they had to "go down and cut the bone out" before stapling his hand back up.
Despite the obvious pain associated with the injury and the fact that it will likely force him to sit out two of the biggest games of his college career, Ball said he actually considers himself lucky. "Am I worried about football? No," he said. "I’m just worried about my hand healing. If I can play in the next game, like special teams, I’ll do it. But I’m not going to worry about it really."
Oh, and in case you’re wondering, Ball isn’t planning on picking up a gun anytime soon, but he also isn’t ruling out doing it again at some point in the future. "I love guns," he said, "but I’ll take a break from them for a little bit."
Ball’s coach Nick Saban spoke about the injury during his press conference at media day and told a story about a kid he played sports with in high school who suffered a similar injury:
Ouch.
