By Will Vandervort.

There is a possibility Clemson could be without freshman quarterback Deshaun Watson for up to four weeks or maybe longer, according to head coach Dabo Swinney on Sunday.

Swinney said during his weekly teleconference with the media that Watson will have a surgical procedure on Monday to place four small screws in his right hand. The Clemson quarterback injured his throwing hand in the first quarter of the Tigers’ 23-17 victory over Louisville and he did not return.

Swinney says it is a possibility Clemson (4-2, 3-1 ACC) could get Watson back before the Georgia Tech on Nov. 15 in Atlanta.

“I think that is certainly well within the time frame. I think that is a good chance,” the Clemson coach said. “He is certainly out for (Boston College), he is out for Syracuse, then we have an open date and then we have Wake (Forest) so that is four weeks and Georgia Tech is five weeks so that is definitely not out of the question. But again, it may be sooner, it may be later. I don’t know. We will just have to see how it heals.”

The one positive according to team doctors is that injury is a quicker healing bone, number one. Number two, because of what they are doing, they do not have to cast Watson’s hand so they will splint the finger instead. What that means is they will be able to take the splint off every day to really do some hand-type rehab with Watson.

“Hopefully, that will speed up the process,” Swinney said.

The bone that Watson broke is a very small one in his finger near the top part of his hand. The screws basically go right into the bone.

With Watson out, the Tigers will turn their fortunes over to backup quarterback Cole Stoudt, who came off the bench to eventually lead Clemson to hard fought victory on Saturday. The senior completed 20 of 33 passes for 162 yards in the win. And though it was not pretty at times, he did lead the Tigers on three second-half scoring drives, including one in the closing minutes of the fourth quarter.

Stoudt, because of an injury he suffered to his shoulder the week before against NC State, missed most of last week’s practice reps and did not take a snap in practice until Thursday afternoon.

“We will get Cole back in practice this week and that will certainly help him,” Swinney said. “It is difficult when you don’t get reps and you don’t get to practice. Nick (Schuessler) got a lot of work last week so it will be good for him and in his development as well.”

Swinney would not say whether he was comfortable or not when it came to thinking about those backing up Stoudt the next few weeks while Watson recovers. Though he said they will have to step up.

After Schuessler, former Stanford backup David Olson is next in line on the depth chart. He came to Clemson from Stanford this past summer.

“That’s what we got – go play,” Swinney said. “It’s next man up. It is no different than anybody else out there. Obviously, you have a starter and a depth chart for a reason, but you know what, we like our guys.

“I think Nick is very capable. He has not had much experience or much opportunity, but you know he has practiced a lot and he has demonstrated that he is very capable of being a solid quarterback at this level, but again, he has not had much opportunity.”

Other injury news. Clemson offensive tackle Joe Gore, who had appendectomy 10 days ago, will be back at practice this week.

Wide receiver Charone Peake had his knee scoped on Friday to remove a blob that was forming in his injured knee. The same knee he had surgery on last year after he tore his ACL.

“They really feel like that is going to help him. It was kind of causing the irritation,” Swinney said. “Hopefully, that will relieve his pain there and we can get him going back in the right direction, too.”