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Monday, October 19, 1987 / University Daily Kansan
Sports
Injuries
The healing process of KU football player
By ELAINE SUNG Special to the Kansan
James Larson/KANSAN
Darryl Terrell, a junior tailback for Kansas, soaks his ankle in a whirlpool. Terrell missed Saturday's game against Colorado, but he could see action against Iowa State on October 24th.
Tailback Darryl Terrell injured his right ankle during the October 10 game against Nebraska at Lincoln.
Terrell was taken out of the game before halftime. X-rays were taken of his ankle, and it was determined no bones were broken, but he had sprained ligaments in the ankle.
His ankle was immediately put on ice to reduce swelling, and Terrell was given Tylenol to ease the pain. His treatment with Lynn Bott, Kansas State University medicine at the training room in Parrot Athletic Center, began Oct. 12.
The following story describes the day-to-day progress, Oct. 12-16, of an injured KU football player who had hoped to play last week against Colorado. Terrrell plans to play this week at home against Iowa State.
Monday and Tuesday
The rehabilitation sessions last three hours on both days. Terrell is on crutches, and there is no way he can play the football field, much less play on it.
All that the athletic trainers can do is to put the ankle in cold water baths. Bottys says that any sort of heat is safe for the ankle, but it won't matter which Terrell cannot afford to have
The doctors have also prescribed to an anastomaly inflammatory agent. help provide care.
Terrell sits on the wooden bench that borders the side of the tub, a stopwatch in his hand to time his routine. In for 10 minutes, out for 10. Back in for 10, out again for 10. He says the water is freezing.
There is also electrical stimulation to relieve the pain. On Tuesday, puised ultrasound is added to the routine. No heat is applied to make sure that the swelling doesn't come back.
Then his right foot is put into a boot, a miniaturized compression chamber. It acts as sort of a splint, and it applies pressure for 60 seconds, then relieves the pressure for 60. It is supposed to help relieve the swelling by getting rid of the fluid in the leg.
Terrell hobbies into the training room on crutches, his right ankle swathed in an Ace bandage. He looks like a child with a wristband he puts pressure on the injured foot.
He then slides onto the padded training table and lets Bot unwrap
Wednesday
Bott handles the ankle gently, putting pressure on certain points of the ankle, trying to determine where the pain is.
He asks where it hurts and Terrell shakes his head several times until Bott hits the sore spot.
Bott hands the stopwatch over to Terrell, who knows the routine by now. Today, he is at the point where he can add the hot whirlpool, another steel tub of yellow water. It is the first time that any type of heat treatment is used. Bott calls it contrast treatment.
Terrrell also gets rid of his crushes today. He will get to walk unassisted and he'll be able to dance with them.
He hops over to the tub of hot water which is maintained at about 110 degrees Fahrenheit. Terrell sits for a while while the water bubbles around his leg.
Then he hops over to another tub, this one filled with cold water. It is very cold, and when Terrell gets out of it this time he says that his foot is numb. He continues the contrast treatment for 25 minutes.
Bott explains that the contrast baths are used to improve the circulation of the ankle. The hot whirlpool baths are used to dilate the veins and increase circulation, while the cold ones constrict the veins and slow
Terrell exercises his ankle while it is in the whirlpool, stretching it from side to side and up down. The ankle helps him help strengthen the ankle, Bott says.
When Terrell is pain-free, the resistive exercises can start. Bott saves.
Bott says the length of the recovery period depends on the motivation of the athlete. All he can do now is to stretch before a game, but he says Terrell is doing well.
After the whirlpool baths, Terrell limps over to one of the padded
tables, lies down, and gets ready for his electrical stimulation session. His foot is elevated and two wires extending from a computerized machine are attached to his ankle. They look like jumper cables with square pieces of sponge on one end.
Bott adjusts the machine so it sends a mild electrical current through the ankle for 10 seconds, then stops for 10.
Each time the current turns on,
See TERRELL, p. 11, col. 1
Linebacker's career ended by turf injury
By TOM STINSON Special to the Kansan
Many football players find it hard to quit the game they love, even when they're forced to by a serious injury.
For former Kansas middle linebacker Eric Keeper, one of the hardest things to deal with after his once-promising football career was cut short by a knee injury was a feeling that he was somehow a quitter.
"People couldn't understand why I wasn't playing," said the stout, blond senior from Salina. "You don't want to be known as a quitter, but people just don't understand what's happened to you."
Keeler injured his knee in the first quarter of the Kansas-Kansas State game during his freshman year. In pursuit of a punt return, he tried to cut left on the artificial turf. His left arm was in the turf and his knee exploded.
Keeler tore his anterior cruciate ligament on the play, along with tearing some of the cartilage around his knee.
that the accident probably wouldn't have occurred on grass. He simply would have slipped and fallen empty handed.
"The hardest thing about it was that I didn't even make contact," Keeler said. "It was a break accident. It's like all the work you do can be taken away in one false step, but the problem with (artificial) turf."
Kansas director of medicine Lynn Bott said an injury like Keeler's tended to be a turf-related injury.
He said physicians had told him
Since the injury, Keeler has undergone three operations. These operations cost $9,773 and were paid for by the Athletic Department, said Arl Lingle, assistant business manager of athletics.
"Usually it is a non-contact injury," Bolt said. "The player's knee can tear." The player twists, the leg bows outside, which ruptures the ligaments."
Keeler accomplished two of three goals after the operations. Walking correctly and participating in light recreational activities were two
goals Keeler accomplished in two years of rehabilitation.
Keeler's third goal, to resume playing Big Eight football, was not successful. Bott said that two years ago he began the span for a successful comeback.
However, Keeler predicted he would have problems with the knee in the future because it had little mobility.
He also tried playing again, but Keeler said he "wasn't worth a crap anymore." His left knee was tested at 60 percent the strength of his right knee in the spring of 1986, when he participated in training drills.
Kenneth Wertzberger, Keeler's surgeon, said the possibility of arthritis increased when cartilage was removed.
"I'm not a big guy (6-foot-1, 200 pounds). I made most of my plays on quickness. Having one bad leg that can be constantly a step behind."
Bott said Keeler's knee needed to test at least 90 percent the strength of the other to continue playing. So, with the guidance of the coaching staff, he decided to leave football and simply finish school. He still receives a full athletic scholarship.
Bott said regaining strength wasn't the only criterion for a good recovery. Having the ability to make quick, lateral movements and regaining agility were also crucial to returning.
Keeler, baring an eight-inch scar over his left knee cap. "I tried to forget about it, but I could see in the films that I didn't look the same.
"I favored it in the spring." said
Keeler, who recorded 11 tackles in five games as a Jayhawk football player, said the saddest part about him was that he had to help him; he was starting to fit in the system.
Although he only suited up for five games, Keeler said he wouldn't trade the ball.
Davis battles back from a knee injury
"What I learned on the road and after the surgery put my life into perspective," said Keeler. "Football isn't that big. It's an identity that is hard to give up, but there is a lot more to life."
By CRAIG ANDERSON
Staff writer
Kansas senior offensive tackle Jim Davis injured his knee only once last season, but he has replayed the situation many times in his mind.
"There was 2:32 left in the Oklahoma State game," Davis said, recalling the experience as if it had happened only five minutes ago. (Kansas quarterback) Mike Orthrath was right to block the defensive lineman out of the play. He came across my leg and bowed it out."
"When it first happened, I didn't think it would be that bad." Davis said of his injury. "I figured I would be back in a couple of weeks."
Davis said it was at that point that his right knee exploded. He heard a popping sound that was his anterior cruciate ligament tearing apart. He fell to the ground, unable to get up. Within 15 minutes, Davis said, his knee had swollen to the size of a cannonball.
Two weeks later, Davis still couldn't walk. He said it was then that he realized the seriousness of his injury.
Lynn Bott, Kansas director of sports medicine, said most knee injuries occurred when an athlete planted his leg and then had the knee twisted. What usually occurs after that is a tear or sprain of ligaments or tendons.
The injury may take less than a second to happen, but the rehabilitation following it can take much longer. In some cases tendons usually took a year to heal.
"Players have this image of when they get hurt, it should be on a good, hard hit," he said. "When it first happens to them, they're usually quite upset and a little bit embarrassed. All of a sudden we see them just lying on the ground away from everyone else."
Bott said Davis' reaction was typical of many athletes.
Bott said that immediately after a knee was injured seriously, the injured joint was kept immobilized for the first six to eight weeks. After that, a series of exercises begin to build up progressively the strength of the knee. Players exercise the knee for one hour a day, five days a week.
Davis said his period of rehabilitation was a painful one. He said a drive inside him made him fight through the pain.
“It’s hard to know what it’s like to be injured and not be able to walk,” he said. “You don’t realize how much it means to you until you have it taken away. You have all this frustration that builds up inside of you. I tried to channel that into hard work.”
The hard work that Davis went through meant that he was able to come back faster than team physicians had thought. He said his goal was to play in the Jayhawks' first game of the 1987 season against Auburn, which he did. Davis said the thought of re-injuring his knee never crossed his mind when he was playing.
Davis is an example of someone who has recovered both physically and mentally from a knee injury. Other players weren't so fortunate.
Bott said former Kansas tailback Kerwin Bell was an example of a player who always had doubts about the recovery of his knee. Bell, a sophomore at the time of his injury, suffered torn ligaments in his knee during the third game of the 1981 season. He had rushed for 1,114 yards as a freshman and had been named first team All-Star. For his injury, he would rush for a little more than 700 yards in the last two years of his career.
"He had a sound knee, physically," Bott said. "But he always had some apprehension playing on it and being able to make cuts."
"Some players have their knee heal completely, but mentally, they can never recover from it," he said. "Because it was such a painful injury, they're always worried about hurting it. They don't want to go through the experience of an injured knee again."
At Kansas, players that have never injured a knee are given the option of whether they want to wear braces. If they want to wear a knee are required to wear them.
Braces are usually made of metal and are designed to absorb the shock of blows to the knee and prevent the pain from bending in unnatural positions.
"A knee brace can become a psychological crutch," he said. "Sometimes athletes feel like they can't perform without it. Our goal is to get the athlete to where we don't need the brace anymore."
Bott said rehabilitative knee braces helped the athlete physically.
Staff writer
Injuries hurt team
By CRAIG ANDERSON
For a team that began the season without much depth, the injuries Kansas has suffered this season have added to the problem.
"We were paper thin to begin with, and it hasn't gotten any better." Kansas Coach Bob Valesente said. "It has me concerned."
Nowhere is the injury problem more evident than in the Kansas secondary. Because of injuries to junior cornerback Johnny Granderson and senior strong safety Marvin Mattox, and the losses of senior cornerback Mike Fisher and junior free safety Clint Normore, Kansas has been forced to move freshmen into more prominent roles.
Freshman cornerback Michael Page started Saturday's game
against Colorado. Freshman free safety Jason Priest was moved to second team on the depth chart after Normore unit the team last week.
"We had hoped to redshift both Page and Priest," Valesente said. "It hurts us experience-wise, but we go to go with the best players we have."
Lynn Bott, Kansas director of sports medicine, said that overall injuries could not be attributed to any other factor, but that more factors are involved.
"Football is a collision sport, and every football program is dealing with injuries now," Bott said. "It's one of those things you have to overcome.
Players injured in the Kansas-Col-
See INJURIES, p. 11, col. 1
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