Blue, Womble Out For The Season

Brian Barbour on October 19th, 2009 | 5 comments - (Comments are closed)

Well, good morning to you too.

UNC freshman Jamal Womble and A.J. Blue both had surgery on Friday to repair their respective injuries and will miss the rest of the season.  In Womble’s case, the surgery was to repair a broken wrist.  He should be fine and dandy by the time spring football rolls around.  The news for Blue was not that good:

Blue had surgery on his left knee Friday at UNC Hospitals. His anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) and posterior cruciate ligament (PCL) were reconstructed and his medial collateral ligament (MCL) was repaired. The surgery was performed by Dr. Jeffrey Spang. Blue, from Dallas, N.C., will miss the remainder of the season and will not participate in UNC’s 2010 spring practice. His status for next fall will be updated in the summer.

Let me translate that for you: His knee was majorly screwed up.  In fact Blue’s knee was so screwed up his status will not be updated until next summer which I take to mean his status for 2010 is in jeopardy. When the words “ligament reconstruction” are used, it generally denotes those ligaments were shredded in the injury. Reconstructing one major ligament is a big enough deal.  Bobby Frasor had that done and it was months before he was cleared to do important things like jump off a balcony into a swimming pool. In this case Blue had to have both his ACL and PCL reconstructed. That is infinitely worse.  Here is a diagram of the knee to give you an idea of where the injury occurred.

So while the MCL and LCL attached the tibia and femur, the ACL and PCL keep the joint stable.  Without even one of them, the knee buckles which means that are really important to an athlete who needs to run, make sudden stop, turns or cuts.  This is about as bad a knee injury as anyone can suffer and you have to feel bad for Blue since this is the kind of thing that is very difficult to return from and be the same player you were before.

The good news is the staff at UNC has a good track record of bringing players back.  Let’s hope that is the case for Blue.

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Category: 2009 Football Season, 2010 Football Season, Injury Report, UNC Football

5 comments to Blue, Womble Out For The Season

• Heels Perspective

  October 19, 2009 at 10:48 am

  Stinks, especially for Blue, who IMHO was our best freshman. He looked like he is a REALLY good TB and a decent QB. Good luck to both guys.

  I’m sure Johnny White and Elzy are back to taking reps at TB as backup to Draughn/Houston.

  Along this subject I do hope Shoop notices that a pass to Elzy out of the backfield is a great weapon…….(of course Yates has to hit him with the pass, arrgghhh)

• HeelYeah

  October 19, 2009 at 2:49 pm

  Do we still think Dyer will not return for the season?

• dj_joek

  October 19, 2009 at 3:39 pm

  I snapped my left ACL while in school at UNC, playing football in fact. It was just flag football with my roommates, and I wasn’t even gunning it, which may be why it happened. A lot of injuries are said to happen when you aren’t fully focused.

  I feel bad for Blue, and know all too well what he will go through. After having the knee scoped soon after the injury, I didn’t have the ACL repaired until 13 years later. Let me tell you, having your knee buckle is excruciating! After that surgery, though, I was in much better shape and played tournament paintball. However, it didn’t hold up and a few years later, the ligament had stretched out and the knee is now in the same state as before the operation. Complete bummer.

• Heels Perspective

  October 19, 2009 at 3:41 pm

  ^ Heelyeah, I would be surprised if Dyer returned. He has some sort of shoulder injury. If he didn’t he certainly would be considered a medical redshirt and would boost the depth of the OL next year. I don’t know anything about his academic progress as he would be in his 5th year as a student.

  I would love to see Pianalto and Ryan Taylor back in the lineup.

• Tar Heel Fan

  October 19, 2009 at 3:51 pm

  I think Dyer is done. The last I heard they said “a few more weeks” which seems like most of the rest of the season. I am not sure what the rule is on redshirt in football but since he has only played two games he should be fine. The question is whether he wants to come back.

  BTW, the academic progress rule back in the 1990s was 90% of your degree done at the end of you fourth year. I imagine it is probably still that way.

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