Argos waiting for test results to determine severity of Ricky Ray injury: Popp

Toronto Argonauts general manager Jim Popp said Monday it will be a few more days before club officials know the full extent of the injury to quarterback Ricky Ray.

“I can’t even speculate on that right now,” Popp said. “I surely hope and pray it’s not significant for his quality of life and his family’s and there’s a 100 per cent recovery.

“The prelim report is good (but) that doesn’t mean he won’t be out a bit. They run very thorough tests, they’re going over stuff, they want multiple people to look at it so there’s a clear indication of what the next step is. It may take a few days for us to get all those answers.”

The team said in a statement Sunday afternoon that Ray was kept in a Toronto hospital overnight after he was carted off the field on a stretcher after suffering a neck injury during the third quarter of the Argos’ home-opening loss to Calgary Saturday night. Ray has feeling in his extremities and no concussion symptoms, according to the club.

Popp said when Ray went down, the outcome of the football game before secondary.

“The game itself becomes insignificant and unimportant to people as the individual because it’s a quality of life and what they’re going to have to go through,” Popp said. “That’s the scary part and that’s in every sport . . . but it gets magnified when it involves one of the all-time greats of your business and league as Ricky is and puts things into perspective.”

– with files from Dan Ralph, CP