Zylstra happy to make his return
Receiver back from groin injury
It’s hard to get off to a great start when the trainers won’t even let you step into the blocks.
But it was for his own good, and the good of the Edmonton Eskimos, that receiver Brandon Zylstra didn’t get the full “ready, set, go” until the second week of training camp.
“I’m so happy to be out here again,” the 24-year-old receiver said after his first full day of camp Monday.
“It was nice to get in front of a live defence again. It was something I was looking forward to. I haven’t done it for seven months now. That’s what I was looking forward to most.”
Zylstra wanted to be in there for Day 1, but he strained his groin prior to training camp and the Eskimos medical staff wasn’t about to take any chances. Better he sit out now than be bothered by it for weeks to come.
“It was just a little tweak in my off-season training, nothing major at all,” he said. “We were just kind of taking precautions.”
The Eskimos already know what the six-foot-three, 220-pound import receiver can do from his sparkling debut last year, so Zylstra was never in any danger of falling out of the picture during his rehab stint. Still, it’s never easy starting camp on the trainer’s table.
He felt like the kid in the back seat of the car on a cross-country trip — “are we there yet? are we there yet?” — as he waited for the green light.
“I was itching to get back,” he said. “I was trying to talk to them (convince them he was ready) but they just told me with injuries like this, once you feel good is when you’ll do something too much and retweak it. They just wanted to make sure I was being patient about it.”
Now that he’s here, Zylstra can get down to the business of becoming a star in the CFL, something he was in the process of doing when he got his shot late last year. In just five games, he picked up 548 yards and three touchdowns on 34 catches. Pro-rate that over a full season and no wonder everyone is excited to see him back.
“It definitely helps to have Brandon back,” said head coach Jason Maas, who deserved a bit of good news on the injury front after all the bad so far.
“He was a big part of our offence the last five games of the year last year, and we were missing him in camp. Witnessing him out there for the first time for a full day is special.
“He does all the little things right. He catches the ball when it’s around him, he’s physical. He’s the player we expect him to be.
“The Brandon I witnessed today is the one I saw at the end of the year last year. We have high expectations, so it’s nice to see him in there.”
There is talk, even, that Zylstra has enough game to fill the giant void left behind by Derel Walker, who’s now on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers roster.
“It’s cool that people think that, but I’m just going to try to add on to what I did last year,” said Zylstra.