Lattanzio ‘excited’ for his long-awaited season debut

After a long, painful absence, defensive lineman Ettore Lattanzio returns to the Ottawa Redblacks lineup Friday against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. It will be his first game of the season. Coming off off-season surgery to repair a bone chip, the lengthy issue was with his groin, a “weird” sensation that took its sweet time disappearing. “I’m excited, I’m obviously looking forward to getting back on the field and hitting people,” Lattanzio, a former Ottawa Gee-Gees star, said Thursday. “It was a long road, man. There are definitely dark days where you definitely feel useless. It’s one of those things you can’t really force or rush.” For a long time, nobody really seemed sure what was bothering him. “They had diagnosed it as a hernia, then it wasn’t a hernia,” said Lattanzio. “The groin is a very complicated area to diagnose. Because of where it was positioned, it was hard to tell if it was a hernia or just a strain or pull. It takes longer to heal; you can’t put your groin in a cast or anything like that. “It wasn’t difficult to do day-today functions — walking wasn’t horrible. But even getting out of bed was tough. There was a lot of strain in the lower abdominal area and in the groin just trying to kick the sheets off. Even treading in the water when I would go swimming was hard. It was a weird pain, a weird sensation. Now that I’m actually able to do things again, it’s nice. I was pretty limited for a while.” A year ago, Lattanzio had 16 tackles in a defensive tackle rotation. In 2016, he had five sacks among his 24 tackles. On Friday, he’s listed behind starter Michael Klassen. “I was called the day before our first practice (this week) and asked if I was up for it,” said Lattanzio.

“To be able to put my feet back in the cleats and get on the field again is amazing. Just play the game, I’ve done this before. Just do what I need to do and have fun doing it. If you make a mistake ... that’s the reality of football, everyone makes mistakes at some point. Do it at 100 miles an hour and that’s it.” Asked what Lattanzio adds to the mix when he’s in the lineup, Redblacks coach Rick Campbell said: “He’s a fighter. He loves playing the game, he’s been dying to play. He can play in the other team’s backfield ... it disrupts things.”