Jim Harbaugh recounts being remote for Zak Zinter’s injury, mad dash to the hospital

It was a terrifying moment in The Game: Right guard Zak Zinter, a team captain, was down on the field and in severe pain. The cart came out almost immediately, and The Big House was silent. You could hear singular conversations on the field level of any person in the 110,000-plus crowd.

Jim Harbaugh was as concerned as anyone and just as helpless. Watching from home due to his suspension by the Big Ten, he was left to wonder what happened. His mind was with Zinter, though he was pleased to see the team rally behind him, as evinced by Blake Corum’s reaction after the touchdown he scored on the very next play.

“There’s a lot of sadness, there’s a lot of worry. I’ve been on the field more times than I would like to remember when a teammate has been seriously hurt,” Harbaugh told WXYZ’s Brad Galli. “A team can sink into that sadness, or it can go the other way and that’s what our guys did. They’re playing for Zak even more than everything else that was on top of the game. You really saw that with Blake when he went into the end zone and put up the six-five and had the presence of mind and say, ‘This is for you, Zak.’ It’s the kind of example I see daily, weekly, monthly, yearly around Schembechler Hall.”

Harbaugh wasted no time rushing to the hospital. Zinter later shared a pre-surgery picture with his family and head coach. A clock in the background showed 4:17 p.m.

That means Harbaugh had made it to the hospital about 30 minutes after the conclusion of The Game to check in on his injured star.

His focus remained there, and he was glad to see it was a clean break (something Zinter can heal from easier than alternatives) and shared Monday that surgery went well.

“Well, I think the biggest thing was just getting there and and find it out there was it was tibia and fibula, because it could have been so many other things even worse in the knee or in the ankle,” Harbaugh said. “And to see the green tree fracture and today the X-rays look beautiful. It was a tremendous surgery that was done.”

Watch Galli’s interview with Harbaugh below:

Story originally appeared on Wolverines Wire