ORCHARD PARK - Bills Mafia can exhale. Josh Allen’s hand is OK, he will practice on Monday, and he’ll be able to play Thursday when the Bills head to Miami to take on the Dolphins.

“As you guys are aware, Josh was injured in the fourth quarter there,” Sean McDermott said Monday afternoon. “They looked at his hand, he went back in and functioned, and then he was looked at after the game again, and he's been cleared to practice today and cleared to play in the game.”

How was Josh Allen injured?

Allen suffered the injury in the fourth quarter when he scored his second rushing touchdown.

It was one of those plays that look spectacular as he’s making it - leaping over a defender, in this case, Cardinals safety Budda Baker - but you want to hide your eyes as he’s going to the ground.

And sure enough, he landed on his left hand and finished the game with it wrapped. The good news is that it’s his non-throwing hand, and he was able to stay in and play, but it will bear watching in the next two days of practice.

“Split-second situations,” Allen said of his two TD runs, both of which produced heavy contact. “The first one, the first rushing touchdown, I kind of lowered the shoulder knowing that was a corner. Second time, I knew it was Budda, and Budda’s a good player and he’ll lay the boom on you so I decided to go up and over. Probably can’t make a living doing that, but here we are.”

The thing is, he has made a living doing that, a very comfortable living, and he has avoided serious injury. Allen currently has the longest consecutive games started streak by a quarterback, 99 counting the postseason. He hasn’t missed one since midway through 2018, his rookie year.

What Sean McDermott said about Josh Allen injury

After the game, McDermott was asked about what it’s like watching his superstar quarterback jumping over defenders and whether it concerns him.

“Yeah, always concerned any time anybody is hurt, in this case, for sure Josh,” he said. “I’m always trying to keep my eyes on him. We were talking at my locker room after, and someone was saying, ‘Hey, Josh had this guy open on this play?’ And I’m like, I just keep my eyes on him most of the time just to make sure he’s doing all right and making sure that he’s not hit late or whatever. So it’s hard to see the guys open down the field for me. He’s a competitor and you never want anything to happen. There’s a balance there as always. We talk about that a lot.”

Sal Maiorana has covered the Buffalo Bills for four decades including 35 years as the full-time beat writer for the D&C, and he has written numerous books about the history of the team. He can be reached at maiorana@gannett.com, and you can follow him on Twitter @salmaiorana. https://profile.democratandchronicle.com/newsletters/bills-blast

This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Josh Allen injury update: McDermott updates QB status vs Dolphins