Arian Foster will be placed on injured reserve tomorrow

Houston Texans running back Arian Foster (23) runs with the ball after making a catch against the San Francisco 49ers in the third quarter at Candlestick Park. The 49ers defeated the Texans 34-3. Mandatory Credit: Cary Edmondson-USA TODAY Sports

The Houston Texans already knew that they would be without Arian Foster this week, and they will now be without Foster for the remainder of the 2013 season. It’s a move that doesn’t come as a surprise, because we were already tipped off by the Houston Chronicle’s John McClain on Friday that Foster could miss the rest of the season due to a bulging disk in his back. Surgery was always the expected outcome for Foster, but he clearly didn’t want to miss the rest of the year. Foster spoke to three different specialists in order to see if one of them would allow him to finish the season without surgery, but all of them stated that surgery is the best option.

It’s clear that both the Texans and Foster need to hold health as the most important thing going forward, because Foster’s extremely high carry totals have definitely taken a toll on him. He’s one of the NFL’s hardest working backs, but carrying the rock 300 times per season is just about unsustainable in this day and age. There was some hope that Arian Foster could hold off on surgery until the season’s conclusion, but that isn’t going to happen at this point in time. Foster is out for the season, and he’ll undergo surgery on his back soon.

In fact, the NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport (he and ESPN’s Adam Schefter initially broke the news of Foster indeed needing surgery, with Rapoport stating that he would be out for the year) tweets that the Texans will officially end Foster’s season by placing their star running back on the injured reserve tomorrow.

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