Detroit Lions running back Kevin Smith will undergo thumb surgery Thursday and miss Sunday’s game against the Dallas Cowboys.
Smith suffered a thumb injury late in the first half of last Sunday’s loss to the Buffalo Bills. He missed three games earlier this year while recovering from 2009 knee surgery but has served as Jahvid Best’s primary backup since early October.
“Kevin has been extremely tough in his dealing with a lot of different issues and his giving us a spark and things like that,” Lions coach Jim Schwartz said. “But there’s a big difference in dealing with sore knees and ankles and shoulders and hamstrings, all those things that running backs deal with, and dealing with a thumb when you’re talking about ball security and being able to catch the ball and things like that. So he’s very disappointed, but it’s something that needs to be done.”
Schwartz did not put a timetable on Smith’s return but said Aaron Brown likely will be active this week for the first time since he broke a bone in his hand Sept. 26. Maurice Morris and fullback Jerome Felton also will see time as Best backups.
Felton said Smith’s thumb “looked pretty bad” after the Bills game.
“I hurt my thumb in kind of the same type of thing, but my (thumb) was a lot different than his was,” Felton said. “It was just hanging down, it looked like the ligament -- like nothing was holding it.”
Smith has 34 carries for 133 yards this year.
Contact Dave Birkett: 313-222-8831 or dbirkett@freepress.com. Read more in his blog at freep.com/lionsblog and follow him on Twitter @freeplions.
Free Press beat writer Dave Birkett will answer your Lions questions in a live chat at 3 p.m. Friday at freep.com/sports. Then come back Sunday as Carlos Monarrez live-blogs the Lions-Cowboys game.
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