Williams’ availability bolsters the team
Good news for Stamps’ return game as back’s wrist injury not season-ending as feared
The last week and a half has been a roller-coaster ride for Terry Williams.
On Oct. 8, the Calgary Stampeders returner/running back had a solid, explosive game against the Montreal Alouettes.
A couple days later, it appeared like he was going to be ruled out for the remainder of the season.
Stamps fans spent the weekend assuming a wrist injury was going to relegate Williams to the six-game injured list, but on Wednesday he was on the field.
“We got good news on his report on the wrist,” said Stamps head coach Dave Dickenson. “We’ll see whether he can make this game or not (Saturday against the Saskatchewan Roughriders), but he’s available.”
While Romar Morris filled in admirably for Williams in the Stamps’ loss to the B.C. Lions last weekend, injuries to Marken Michel and Troy Stoudermire meant the Calgarians were running awfully short on options in the return game.
They got a reminder of that at Wednesday’s practice, when both Morris and practice roster running back Ka’Deem Carey took a while getting up after a collision knocked them both to the turf.
And while there have been a few ups and downs this season with Williams returning kicks, he’s third in the CFL in punt return yards, with 638, and has three punt return touchdowns, as well.
His performance against the Als was the best he’s had in a while, too, especially as he added a highlight-reel fourth-quarter touchdown on offence, as well.
That’s part of what made the timing in of the injury so frustrating.
“Even before that game, I was struggling catching punts,” Williams said. “It was up-and-down, and then I had a good game and I was out.”
Williams has been dealing with a wrist injury since the start of the season, and that partially explains some of the difficulties he’s had catching punts cleanly. He was going in for routine treatment when the medical staff told him they wanted to do an x-ray on his wrist last week.
That revealed some concerns and prompted Williams to get an MRI. The coaching staff seemed convinced last week that they’d be without Williams long term, so it was a pleasant surprise that he was back out on the practice field this week.
“(The doctors) told me I’ll have to get it cleaned up at the end of the season,” Williams said.
While it’s obviously good news for the Stamps that they’ll have Williams available and it should be expected that they’ll use him both on offence and on special teams, he’ll likely be playing through pain for the rest of the year.
That doesn’t seem to bother him. Not even a little bit.
“I could have played last week but (Dickenson) wants me to rest and not over-do it so much,” Williams said. “I could have played last week, I want to play this week.
“My arm has to be cut off for me not to play, so like I said, I’m happy to be back and ready to go.”