Seattle Seahawks safety Earl Thomas is among the most intense players in the NFL, and said missing his first career game last week due to a hamstring injury was tough on him.

He suffered a more serious injury Sunday, and that led to a strange in-game tweet.

Thomas was defending a pass against the Carolina Panthers when his leg crashed into teammate Kam Chancellor’s leg. He was down for a while, was carted off, and NBC said he was seen on crutches. NBC’s Michele Tafoya said Thomas suffered a crack in his tibia, according to Seahawks coach Pete Carroll. That will presumably keep him out a long time.

The Seahawks have four games left in the regular season and are currently sitting as the No. 2 seed in the NFC.

Since 2009 the NFL has banned players from using social media during games, from 90 minutes before the game until postgame interviews are done. That apparently didn’t stop Thomas, who sent these two tweets before the first half was done:

It’s very, very hard to believe Thomas, who is just 27 years old and a three-time All-Pro, would really retire. A broken leg isn’t ideal, but it’s not catastrophic for a football player. You can understand Thomas’ emotions, however, suffering that injury late in a promising season. And perhaps it wasn’t him tweeting – maybe he was hacked or a publicist has access to his verified account, though it would be strange to get into Thomas’ account just to tweet those two things.

While you’d assume Thomas is very unlikely to retire, it’s still obvious how devastating the injury was to him (assuming the tweets were his). It’s pretty devastating to the Seahawks, too.

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Frank Schwab is the editor of Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at shutdown.corner@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
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