Bills center Eric Wood suffered a broken leg in the fourth quarter of Monday night's game and was carted off the field. On Tuesday in his weekly radio appearance on Bills flagship station WGR Sportsradio 550, Wood confirmed that he would need surgery for a broken fibula.
"I'm going to get surgery (Wednesday) morning here in Buffalo," said Wood. "Then start the road to recovery. They're putting a (metal) plate on the fibula where it broke. It's supposed to speed it up and ensure it gets a proper heal."
Wood was injured on Mike Gillislee's one-yard touchdown run less than a minute into the fourth quarter, when backside pursuit on the play fell on his right leg, which was planted in the ground.
"I felt a crack and hoped it was just my ankle, like you can crack your ankle," Wood said. "Then I started getting some pretty intense pain. At that point I was hoping for a sprain, but I had a feeling it was broken when it happened."
The Bills Pro Bowl center said the current break isn't nearly as bad as the one he had in Week 11 of his rookie season in 2009.
"Generally it's like a six to eight week injury, which would mean we'd need to reel off some wins to come back and play this year," he said. "That's my hope. Injuries happen and I may to go to I-R. I'm not 100 percent sure. But I'll be pulling for my guys and doing whatever I can to help."
Head coach Rex Ryan is expecting to lose Wood for the last seven games of the year and knows they've got big shoes to fill in the pivot.
"That's a really, really big blow to our football team," he said. "Eric really takes charge of that offensive line. Richie is a veteran player that I know can handle things. He's a sharp guy who studies hard, but it's going to be a big loss."
As for those who will step in it's expected to be Ryan Groy, who stepped in for him in the fourth quarter Monday night.
"I would assume Groy will still be the guy," said Wood. "He's been in the league a few years. He's played under Kromer before. He started games for him in Chicago. Groy is a big, athletic guy. He played at Wisconsin. Good player. He played a bunch of guard for us and he played a lot in the preseason when Richie was out."
Buffalo also has Patrick Lewis as a center option, a player they picked up off waivers from Seattle at the start of the season after they released veteran free agent signee Fernando Velasco in final cuts.
"We have Patrick Lewis here and he's been inactive for the entire season," said Ryan. "But he's familiar with what we do. And we have Groy who replaced Eric at the end of the game. Groy can play all the positions. He's a smart guy as well. It is going to be hard to replace a player of his caliber, but we have two guys we feel pretty confident in."
Wood said he's willing to help in the offensive line meeting rooms and the guys who will replace him in the lineup. He'd like to be on the sideline on game days as well to communicate with the line, but knows being on crutches he won't be allowed to do so.
"He was really down," said Ryan, who spoke to him after the Monday night game. "He wants to be here with this football team. He would do whatever it takes to come back and be ready to play. He knows the direction of the team we feel that it can go these next seven weeks. He feels terrible about it, not as much about himself and the injury, but about the team. He knows he's a big factor in our team and it was like he was more disappointed that he was letting our team down, which is ridiculous. He's going to bounce back from this."
