The Los Angeles Rams suffered an under-the-radar but potentially quite significant injury during their win over the Lions when backup running back Malcolm Brown went down. Speaking on a conference call with reporters Monday, coach Sean McVay provided an update on Brown’s status.

“You know, he kind of got hit up in his clavicle area. He’s going to have a procedure done. That’s not necessarily a surgery, but he’s got to make sure that we can kind of get that thing where — it’s a little bit above my understanding with regards to some of the specifics. Similar to the Robert Woods injury that he had last year,” McVay said. “You want to just make sure that clavicle is in a spot that it doesn’t press on some of the other things that are kind of vital in that area of your body.”

McVay said he’s not sure the extent of the procedure or whether it’ll be a complete surgery, but it’s assumed that Brown will miss some time.

“As far as if they’ve actually got to open him up or not, those are things that I have not found out yet,” he said. “But, we’re hoping to find out here pretty shortly just to see what the severity of that injury is and how long he’ll be gone.”

Brown was announced as out with a shoulder injury during the game, and McVay specified Monday that it was his clavicle. Brown posted a photo of himself on Instagram in a hospital bed which suggests he’s undergoing the procedure.

Rams backup running back Malcolm Brown was ruled out yesterday during Lions game because of a shoulder injury. Today, he posted this photo to his Instagram (MalcBee). pic.twitter.com/9T9yQjNPBa — Lindsey Thiry (@LindseyThiry) December 4, 2018

Regardless of how the procedure goes, it looks like the injury is significant. McVay said it “would be a huge loss” if Brown has to miss time, and the coaching staff has always been quite high on him.

“It would be a huge loss because of what Malcolm (Brown) means to our football team – not only for our offense, but for our special teams,” he said. “If that’s the case, then it’d probably be something where both Justin (Davis) and John (Kelly) would have to end up stepping up in a role where they both may be potentially be asked if they need to sub for Todd and get some different work in.”

Brown has seen his role dramatically increase the past two year’s under McVay, and has seen a lot of run this year as Todd Gurley’s backup. He’s carried the ball 43 times for 212 yards, a very solid 4.9 yards per carry, and is essential on special teams.

McVay also noted that pretty much everyone else on the team came out of the game healthy. Backup running backs John Kelly and Justin Davis have been inactive recently, and certainly one or possibly both would be active to help out in the backfield and on special teams, assuming Brown does miss time.