Troy Woolfolk: You have all heard the news

Posted at 8:00am — 8/19/2010

Troy Woolfolk: YOU HAVE ALL HEARD THE NEWS!!??

Troy Woolfolk, leader and the best in the thin Michigan secondary has sustained a serious ankle injury. The injury, by many accounts but yet to be publicly affirmed, is a severe ankle injury, perhaps a dislocated ankle. Let us start with the obvious, that everyone wishes Troy the best recovery possible and that he can continue his career with no loss of athletic performance.

Dislocated ankles have degrees, complete versus incomplete, and are of different types, but when a medical team of doctors or trainers see a bad example on the field (or wherever) immediately they have almost total certainty if it is really severe. Then x-rays and MRI’s confirm or deny the initial thought.

Such ankle injuries are suffered mostly by athletes since, as common sense and physics would indicate, it takes a great force and frequently a twisting motion to cause ankle damage this severe.

Below is some basic information based on the viewpoint of athletic training, not the viewpoint of a board certified doctor. The information takes into account that Troy’s injury, as of the time of this writing, has not been formally diagnosed and the total nature and extent made public. If this injury is a complete dislocation, the recovery time will be lengthy. Months, not weeks, are involved for the possibility of full recovery.

A clean broken bone, as serious as such an event would be, is better than a full, complete dislocation. Statistically, medical sites have clear consensus that most complete dislocations are accompanied by one or more fractures. Tarsal bones between the lower leg and foot area (metatarsals) can easily break under severe force. The above double-dip is accompanied by nerve, blood, and serious ligament tissue damage.

Surgery is sometimes indicated and may result in a quicker recovery time versus reducing the injury quickly and letting it heal on its own. Such injuries can take a full year for recovery and there is no guarantee an athlete can return to 100% of the pre-injury level. But take heart, orthopedic care has jumped light years in the last two decades, in part due to sports medicine procedures.

Again, let us all hope that the extent of this injury is less than is what is being hinted at. But……….

The conversation turns to the football side of Troy’s unfortunate injury. Anytime a program/team loses a key starter it hurts. When the program/team is lacking quality depth at the injury position, this hurts even worse. Take a program like OSU, if the Buckeyes were to lose a starting CB, there would be two players who have varsity letters waiting in the wings, not to mention three or four safeties that could sufficiently satisfy the position need. UM, by comparison, has one transplanted safety and two untested true freshmen. Teams like OSU, USC, or Alabama are much better equipped to overcome a serious injury because of superior position depth. GBMWolverine has highlighted depth, especially on defense, as one of the primary program concerns. Some help arrived this year, but UM continues to experience the defensive back difficulties of the past few years. The names of those who have left, or never came, is lengthy and will not be noted below. As always in sports, the real concern is what to do now, not what might have been?

JT Floyd will now switch over to the primary corner position and all of us will see in the first two games how well he has progressed. The competition should be very open between at least four other candidates: Christian Cullen, Courtney Avery, Teric Jones, Tony Anderson, and James Rogers.

Highly rated Christian is known for good jamming, turning and general coverage skills. There is a question about how well he can do against receivers with elite speed. Avery is solid, very smart, and has good speed. His learning curve just accelerated due to need. Tony Anderson, a walk-on looked pretty good in some of the spring practices. Teric Jones may have to be reinserted into the cornerback equation due to need. Finally, team player James Rogers has some experience. The primary concern is his level of physical play.

So what actions do the coaches take regarding addressing the team? The atmosphere will be one of reality; Troy’ status will be addressed, Troy will be wished the best, and the team will be made aware that life goes on, do your job, do not try to do too much to make up for the loss. It is that simple and brutal.

Written by GBMWolverine Staff

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