San Diego Union-Tribune columnist Kevin Acee gave us an injury update on Chargers running back Ryan Mathews on Thursday. Acee said the ankle that bothered him for nearly all of last season is 100 percent healthy. However, he also revealed that Mathews underwent wrist surgery in January. There doesn't appear to be fear that it will force him to miss any part of training camp, which will open in July if the current lockout is solved in time.

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This is worth noticing because Mathews battled through and was forced to miss games due to injuries since first spraining his ankle in week two against Jacksonville. The wrist issue should be nothing to fret about in the long term, but it does speak to the notion that Mathews may not be very durable. After missing three consecutive games, Mathews finished his rookie year with tempting results. He scored five of his seven touchdowns in the final four games and had a monster outing against Denver in the season finale. He gave us a glimpse of what might be if he can stay on the field. But there are other obstacles in his way, Mike Tolbert specifically. Tolbert received a second-round tender prior to the lockout and it's probable that he'll remain with the Chargers for all of 2011. That means more games with shared workloads for Mathews and a limited number of touchdowns since the bigger Tolbert will continue t get the short-yardage work. Mathews was taken with the fourth pick in the third round of a 12-team expert draft I participated in earlier this month. Given his current situation, that's way too high of a price for me to commit to Mathews.