Center Juan Garcia met with the media today and talked about his recovery from a Lisfranc sprain, which seems to be progressing ahead of schedule.
“No, I didn’t think I would be this far ahead,” he said, adding that it was tough sitting out most of the practice drills yesterday. “But it’s a little frustrating to see those guys play though.”
“This week we’re seeing where I’m at, then every day I’m going to do a little more stuff, then hopefully next week I can get in there for a drill or two and see how my leg holds up. We’re just taking it day by day for now, but I’m happy where I’m at though. I didn’t expect to be at this point. I thought by the time I’d be out there doing a drill it would be some point after camp.”
Garcia said there’s not a lot of pain in the foot but that it was a little sore after running on it yesterday.
He didn’t rule out returning for the opener at Oregon, but said the week two game against BYU is his goal.
Asked when he might be able to test his foot without thinking about the injury, Garcia responded:
“I think it started yesterday. The last few weeks I just kept thinking about it, and yesterday I just said, ‘I’ve had enough of this.’ I was talking to coach Denbrock and I was like, ‘Man, one of these days I’m going to have to go out there full speed, and either I’m going to be able to go, or that’s going to be the end of that.’ Because I’m tired of waiting. I hate seeing my guys out there and me not being out there with them.”
Garcia said the injury is still healing, but that his progress is ahead of schedule.
“It hasn’t healed completely, but it feels good and it’s gotten a lot stronger,” he said. “It’s coming along and they didn’t expect it to be at this point. Right now everybody is saying that was the best thing to do not doing surgery. People are praying for me and I’m glad for that. It might be a miracle, I don’t know. I’m happy.”
He also acknowledged that this so far speedy recovery could still have a disappointing ending.
“There’s a good chance it could be reinjured, but that’s the chance I took when I didn’t have the surgery,” he said. “I’ve already accepted the fact that if I don’t play this season, I didn’t quit on myself, so it won’t be the same as when I got injured when I was just devastated. Now I know that if for some reason tomorrow that if I run out there on the field and break it or whatever and I’m done, I’ll say, ‘Hey, I gave it my shot.’”
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