Freak accidents happen in sports and are just part of athletics in general. One minute you can be running fine and moments later, just by planting the wrong way, you can suddenly blow out your leg.
Former Michigan quarterback/wide receiver Antonio Bass experienced a severe non-contact, freak-accident injury back in the spring of 2006. He was running a play as a quarterback, tripped, planted and completely destroyed his knee when his foot got caught in the turf. Just like that, Bass' football career came to an end, as all of the ligaments in his knee were destroyed and he also pulled his hamstring. A usual movement that is done every day during practice resulted in one of the severest injuries in Michigan football history.
On Tuesday, Troy Woolfolk experienced a non-contact injury of his own. As you all probably know by now, he broke his fibula and dislocated his ankle, and like Bass, it happened because his foot got caught when he planted.
“I’m only listening to what the coaches told me, but they said it happened during a tackle. His foot got stuck in the turf and his ankle just turned,” Butch Woolfolk said from Sugar Land, Texas, where he lives and where Troy grew up.
It truly is amazing how such a routine thing can produce such a catastrophic injury. All of Woolfolk's hard work to prepare for his senior season came to an end in an instant, and soon he will have to begin the long road to recovery.
I hope returning to the football field is the light at the end of the tunnel for Woolfolk, but as Bass' injury showed, sometimes injuries can be life-altering and leave football out of the equation. Obviously no one wants that to be the case for Woolfolk, because he deserves a chance to play out his senior year. Hopefully that will happen in 2011, but for now, however, I just hope Woolfolk recovers from this injury, as he is certainly in my thoughts.