Woods hurt in Week 2
By KRIS BAGLEY sports@leader-news.com

Tyler Woods

It appears an injured Ricebird may rejoin the team soon on the football field.

S e - nior Tyler Woods, a lineb acker, quarterback and kicker for the 'Birds, exited El Campo's game against Angleton Friday in the third quarter.

He was hit hard after a fake punt by the Wildcats and grabbed his right leg as he went down to the turf. After being carried off the field on a stretcher and taken to the hospital for X-rays, doctors determined Woods' leg wasn't injured at all, but both of his shoulders were.

"They thought his leg was broken," Carrie Stogner, athetic trainer for El Campo, said. "From the way his leg looked, it was turned out and drooping and he got hit right on the tibia and it could have been fractured.

"The doctor was worried about the brachial artery that goes behind the back of the knee being severed, so they wanted to make sure (the leg) didn't move. They went ahead and splinted it and took him over to get X-rays to make sure everything was OK. Because he had real loose ligaments, it saved him from breaking his leg."

Instead of his leg, Woods has injuries in both his shoul- ders. The left-shoulder injury is believed to be a labral tear that actually occurred two weeks ago, while the right-shoulder injury is basically a separation of the collar bone and top of the shoulder.

"We're not sure on the left shoulder," Stogner said. "We go for an MRI (this week), but they think it's a labral tear, which is the cartilage around the joint. That's what he hurt two weeks ago and we've been rehabbing him and trying to get it back.

"The other one was an AC separation, which is the acromial and clovicular joint. That was a separation and he knew it hurt that night, but his leg hurt worse so he didn't even talk about it. That's how we found out about the right shoulder."

Woods' had the MRI Tuesday, but Stogner said results will not be in until next week at the earliest.

Neither injury should prevent Woods from playing football or joining the baseball team later in the year. If the left-shoulder injury is what doctors expect, Stogner said, it will require surgery at the end of the year, but he can still play.

"If it's a labral tear, there is no healing - he'll have to have surgery," Stogner said. "But it's in the left shoulder, so it doesn't affect him to play baseball or football or anything like that because it's his nondominant arm. There's a special strapping device that we've already put him in to keep his arm from going back and hurting again. He could play as soon as there is less pain."

Head Coach Bob Gillis said the decision is up to Woods if he is medically cleared and the Ricebird could take to the field quickly.

"We've got good news on that," Gillis said. "He'll be back, we just don't know when. It could be this week - stranger things have happened."