Edwards finally close to full strength again
MADISON – David Edwards was determined to defeat his injury.
Wisconsin’s All-American right tackle suffered nerve damage when he took a blow to his left shoulder late in preseason camp.
Neither Edwards nor the coaches divulged the severity of the injury until recently:
Edwards played the first six games of the season hampered by a left arm that lacked the strength to move 300-pound linemen.
Yet Edwards refused to take time off, in large part because he was inspired by left tackle Jon Dietzen, who has stoically battled ankle and hip problems.
“He never complains,” Edwards said after practice this week. “He works his tail off. I said to myself: ‘That’s the kind of guy I want to be. He doesn’t make an excuse. He just keeps working.’ ”
Edwards believes he made a breakthrough two weeks ago against Illinois and feels close to fully recovered with Rutgers set to visit Camp Randall Stadium on Saturday.
“You’re trying to break through the wall, break through the wall,” he said, pounding his right fist into his left palm. “And eventually you’re going to break through it.
“That came against Illinois. I felt really good. I got through.”
The road was long and painful. Edwards’ case is typical of the manner in which teams handle players battling injuries.
Coaches don’t want opponents to know a player is dealing with an injury because that player could become a target on the field. Players don’t want to appear that they are using an injury as an excuse if their level of play isn’t up to their standard.
Offensive line coach Joe Rudolph, however, spoke recently about the injury because Edwards is close to full strength. Edwards felt comfortable talking about the injury and his rehab work because his position coach had broken the ice.
“It was tough because I didn’t have a lot of strength in that left arm,” said Edwards, who rooms with Dietzen. “It is tough to play that position with basically one arm.”
The low point came Sept. 15 in UW’s 24-21 loss to BYU, a game in which Edwards struggled against a stout front.
“I talked with Coach Rudolph after the BYU game,” he said. “I said here is where I’m at. I don’t want to take any time off. I don’t think that is going to be the answer.
“If there is anything I can do with my technique that would help?”
Rudolph was asked how he handled the situation.
“It is always tough,” he said. “All you can do is have open communication with the guys and really open communication with the (medical) staff and the training room and I feel like we do.
“Sometimes you just need to fight through something and other times you know you can’t do that.”
Edwards encountered two problems in trying to play through and overcome the nerve injury.
First, the easiest solution was to shut it down and rest. Edwards wasn’t interested.
“The thing about a nerve is you can’t give it a shot,” he said. “You can’t give it medicine. You can rehab the muscles around it but once the nerve is fired up the only thing you can do is rest it.”
Second, Edwards learned that if he went through rehab during the week and gradually regained strength in the shoulder and arm, suffering another stinger would wipe out all the progress he had made.
“I’d get the strength back rehabbing and then I’d get another stinger and – boom!” he said.
Did that happen in any games? Edwards paused for a few seconds and said:
“Yes. A lot. Pretty much all of them.” If Edwards ever would have been tempted to take a week off to rest, living with Dietzen made that impossible.
Dietzen has undergone surgery on his ankles and last off-season had surgery on both hips.
The staff tries to manage his workload in games but his teammates admire his perseverance.
“I look back at that,” Edwards said of his injury, “and I think to myself: ‘What a cool opportunity it was to be able to battle through an adverse situation.’ ”