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Arizona Cardinals wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins suffered a knee sprain in his team's loss to the Los Angeles Rams in the final minutes of the fourth quarter.
Hopkins had five catches for 54 yards on 12 targets in the loss, but the Cardinals suffered a double blow, losing the game and also Hopkins for the rest of the regular season.
It was on Hopkins' final target where the injury happened as Kyler Murray threw into double coverage for Hopkins. The two Rams defenders landed on the legs of Hopkins, who was then seen to be in distress.
Per Adam Schefter of ESPN, Hopkins will miss the last four games of the Cardinals' regular season with the team hopeful of his return for the postseason, but a second opinion regarding the injury will be looked after. Head coach Kliff Kingsbury feels that a second look at the damage will not produce much optimism.
Prior to this season, Hopkins had been extremely durable, only missing two games in his entire career. However, he has already missed three games this season with a hamstring injury and will now miss at least four with his knee sprain.
Also read: "Not someone playing" - NFL analyst has a surprising pick for who was the biggest winner of Rams vs Cardinals tie
Fans react to Hopkins' injury
As expected, NFL fans were in a state of shock when the news emerged that Hopkins would miss at least a month of NFL action.
To have a player of the caliber of Hopkins out for the remainder of the regular season is a bitter pill for the Cardinals to swallow. With tricky games against the Colts and Dallas in the last four weeks, Kyler Murray is going to have to spread the ball around.
Much of the load will now fall on Cristian Kirk, Zach Ertz, AJ Green and James Conner (if fit) to help propel the Cardinals into the playoffs with some momentum.
After the Cardinals relinquished the NFC's number one seed to Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers, they dropped to number three seed. The Cardinals do not have a bye in the first week of the playoffs. Should they continue to lose, the team that has been the most dominant all season faces the real possibility of an early exit in the playoffs.
Also read: NFL Playoff Picture: Packers catapult to top seed as Cardinals lose
