A disturbance in the force...

Well, the Gaels are winning their final regular-season game at Waterloo, but it may prove to be a Pyrrhic victory. According to CFRC's excellent radio broadcast of the game, star running back Mike Giffin went down with what appears to be a right leg injury on the opening play of the contest. As Ben Kenobi might say, "I felt a disturbance in the force, as if thousands of Gaels' fans from coast to coast cried out in pain." No word yet on how serious this is, but Giffin hasn't returned to the field. That could be precautionary, as there's no point in risking further injury in a meaningless game like this, but it also could mean that this is serious. Fortunately for Queen's, the bye next week means that Giffin will have two full weeks to recover. We'll see if that is enough. Backups Marty Gordon and Jimmy Therrien are certainly capable, but they don't pose the same magnitude of running threat that forces defences to stack the box against Queen's, opening passing lanes for quarterback Dan Brannagan and his talented receiving corps. As this game's shown so far, the Gaels can get it done without Giffin, but they're nowhere near as impressive, and that could spell trouble in the playoffs. This is a talented team and they're bigger than just Giffin, as they've shown by winning games against Western and Ottawa where he was held under 100 yards, but his loss would still be huge. We'll see if he's back in two weeks. I'll post updates if I get more information.

Update: 3:41 p.m. CFRC has just announced that Giffin's continued absence is apparently only a precautionary measure: as they mention though, the ice pack and limping suggest something more. Sounds like he'll be back in two weeks, though.