Who would have known that during the Super Bowl, Seattle Seahawks safety Earl Thomas was enduring a fully torn labrum? The free safety is set to undergo surgery for his injury and he is expected to recover for six to eight months.

Prior to the Super Bowl, NBC Sports said that Seahawks coach Pete Carroll already announced that Thomas was already "over" with his injury that affected his participation in the NFC Championship game.

But now it is clear that the injury has persisted.

Bleacher Report explained that Thomas is a one-of-a-kind player in the NFL as no safety in the league "has the kind of anticipation and closing speed that he does." He was clearly struggling throughout the season as a series of injuries marred his performance but Bleacher Report said this did not stop him from contributing points to the Seahawks.

The outlet added that though there may be some great defense players on the team, Thomas' role can't be matched.

"Of course I'm going to learn from the greats-Ronnie Lott, Ed Reed, Troy Polamalu. But there's a lot of unfinished work they didn't do. I want to be the standard. I want to redefine what it means to be a safety," Thomas was quoted by Bleacher Report as saying in one of his interviews.

According to the Bleacher Report, Thomas will have to overcome this injury as he is considered the "anchor" of the team which keeps it intact and grounded during the game.

"His toughness is evident, and now he will take the necessary steps to work back to full health for 2015," the Bleacher Report stressed.

The series of injuries among the Seahawks lineup, according to Yahoo Sports, may have caused the team's struggle in their games. The report noted that cornerback Jeremy Lane broke his arm, safety Kam Chancellor had a knee injury during practice and cornerback Richard Sherman dealt with an elbow injury.

Looking at this entirely new angle, reports noted that this could have been the reason why the Seahawks failed to clinch the Super Bowl championship and not because they were lesser of a team than the New England Patriots.

It was evident during the final game that the Seahawks were not making things work during the game as much as the Pats were and the fans attributed it to poor teamwork or maybe game plan. But with Thomas' injury and the rest of the sidelined players, it would really have been impossible for the team to pull out a victory but the important thing was they tried their best.