Despite a lack of practice time, Maurkice Pouncey says he will play vs. Dallas

The Pittsburgh Steelers starting offensive line played two snaps together before Maurkice Pouncey ran off the M&T Bank Stadium field to have his dislocated thumb examined by the team’s medical staff. B.J. Finney took over the center duties, and although Pouncey returned, Finney would finish the game at center for the black and gold.

Tuesday, Mike Tomlin spoke with the media and announced Pouncey had surgery on his injured thumb, but mentioned the team isn’t ruling him out for the upcoming game against the Dallas Cowboys in Week 10. Tomlin even went a step further and stated Pouncey could miss practice Wednesday and Thursday, but be limited leading up to the game.

Up to this point the protocol has been followed as Tomlin outlined, and while speaking to media Thursday, Pouncey declared he will be in the lineup this Sunday afternoon.

“I’m playing, 100 percent,” Pouncey told Dustin Dopirak of DKPittsburghSports. “Never any doubt. … I’m good, man. I think people are making it a bigger deal than what it is. Let’s just go play, man. We got a football game. I sit on the couch too long not to be playing in any football game.”

Pouncey is no stranger to having to watch his team play. In 2015 he missed the entire season after he broke his ankle in a preseason game against the Green Bay Packers, and ultimately would require 7 surgeries to not only fix the initial injury, but also clear out an infection which set in throughout the process.

However, an injury to a center’s thumb on his snapping hand is nothing to mess around with.

“Once it popped back out again when I went back in the game, they just didn’t want me to go back out there and keep popping it through the joint again to mess up that capsule,” Pouncey said. “Honestly, I got surgery, everything went great. I’ll be out at practice tomorrow. Not today, you gotta give me one more day.”

This is good news for the Steelers who will need every body available to upset the visiting Cowboys on Sunday. Pouncey declares he is ready for the game, let’s just hope his teammates follow suit.

“I’m ready, baby. I was born for this.”