Groin injury took Eagles' kicker by surprise

CODY PARKEY said he didn't feel good from the start of warmups Sunday at MetLife Stadium, but he knew he had to kick, since he had no backup.

Parkey managed five kickoffs, a 30-yard field goal, and three extra points with what he said yesterday were tears of "all three (adductor) muscles in my groin."

On Monday, Parkey went to IR. Yesterday, on a muggy afternoon more suited to training camp, he watched former Dolphins kicker Caleb Sturgis work with Parkey's long snapper, Jon Dorenbos, and his holder, Donnie Jones. Sturgis now has Parkey's job, at least for this season, assuming he can perform respectably.

"From the first kick in warmups of the Jets game I was like, 'Wow, this does not feel good,' " Parkey said. He wore a pressure stocking on his right leg yesterday, the result of a hematoma arising from the muscle tears.

"I went through a lot of pain during the game, but I was able to hit all my kicks. Just got an MRI, and it showed that I tore all three (adductor) muscles in my groin, which is obviously a long-term injury, so short-term IR was not an option," said Parkey, who made the Pro Bowl as a rookie. "I'm rehabbing and I've got to come back stronger."

Parkey was bothered all through training camp by a groin problem, didn't kick after the second preseason game. He missed a 44-yard field goal that could have given the Eagles a late lead in the season-opening loss at Atlanta, but both Parkey and Eagles coach Chip Kelly contended Parkey's groin wasn't a factor.

Parkey got an MRI the Wednesday before the Falcons game, an NFL source said, that showed his preseason injury had healed.

"It's hard to say" whether muscles were already strained, Parkey said yesterday. Asked whether he should have taken more time off, Parkey said: "I'm not a doctor. I have no clue."

"I'm the kind of guy that I want to go," he said. "I want to go, go go. Maybe that hurts me sometimes, but I want to help my team win."

Parkey wasn't on the Eagles' injury report going into the Jets game. "It really - honestly, I thought it just kept getting better," Parkey said. "In the long run, I guess it was just really fatigued. Just something that I kind of kept pushing through. It was honestly starting to feel better, so I'm not sure really what happened - it just kind of gave out on me, along with the other two (adductor) muscles in the groin."

Sturgis, 26, is a former Dolphins fifth-round pick from Florida who was not all that accurate in two seasons with the team (77.5 percent field-goal success, vs. 88.9 for Parkey last season). He lost the Miami job in training camp, though he said he thought he was hitting the ball well. "I feel confident the way I'm kicking the ball," Sturgis said after his first Eagles practice. He will wear Alex Henery's old No. 6. "I feel really ready."

Jones and Dorenbos, the two most experienced Eagles, said adjusting to a new kicker isn't a problem for them. Jones said he has held for many, many kickers in the 11 seasons he has performed that role. Dorenbos said he mainly has to worry about being in snyc with Jones, not so much with the kicker.

The difference between 77.5 and 88.9 percent on field goals is "a few inches," Sturgis said. "Your 'A' ball is always going to go in. What's your 'B' ball do, and what does your 'C' ball do?"

Julian Vandervelde didn't get to see the pope, he said, but he did stay in Philadelphia during the six days he spent between being released and brought back by the Eagles. Vandervelde, a center-guard drafted in the fifth round from Iowa in 2011, has been released five times by the Birds and once by Tampa Bay.

"I don't know what the record is, between a single player and a single team, but I'm going for it," he joked.

Vandervelde said while teammates were welcoming him back to the fold yet again yesterday, it emerged that defensive lineman Cedric Thornton didn't know Vandervelde had been gone.

What did he do with himself in the interim?

"Hanging out, working out. Playing video games. I'm writing Web comics," Vandervelde said.

He missed the Celtic Festival and Highland Games of Quad Cities, Iowa, for which he had been training when the Eagles called last time.

"My rival, a kid I played high school football against, won the novice division," Vandervelde said. "I feel like I would have done really well, because I would have been in direct competition with him. So I'm a little disappointed about that. I don't know what he got for winning, but whatever it is, I want it."

There was no official injury report yesterday but safety Chris Maragos (knee) returned to practice, and defensive coordinator Bill Davis said he hopes inside linebacker Mychal Kendricks can play this week at Washington. Rookie Jordan Hicks will take Kiko Alonso's place in the three-linebacker rotation. Alonso is still trying to decide whether to have season-ending surgery on his partially torn left ACL ... Seems running back DeMarco Murray (hamstring) should play this week ... Ced Thornton had surgery on his broken right hand. The stitches bisect a tattoo of the name of Thornton's daughter, Kaylei, which he said was unfinished anyway, and now will require reworking. Thornton isn't likely to get the medical OK this week, with fresh stitches.

On Twitter: @LesBowen