Malcolm Mitchell walked slowly into a University of Georgia classroom — Interpersonal Communication Theory — on Monday, his classmates turning briefly to acknowledge his arrival. Dressed head to toe in clothes branded with the UGA logo, Mitchell took a seat at the head of the room, right leg jutting out far in front, poised to take down any passerby who might have his nose buried in a phone screen.
He couldn’t help it. The brace clutching his right knee kept him from bending his leg beneath his desk. His professor immediately took notice, asking him if he needed something to prop his leg up. Dr. Tina Harris had surgery, too, and knows keeping it elevated is key. She insisted, dragging a desk in front of him, and Mitchell placed the physical reminder of last season’s opening game upon it.
It’s Clemson week and Mitchell hasn’t played a snap of football since celebrating Todd Gurley’s 75-yard touchdown on the opening drive against the Tigers last year.
If Mitchell’s cautious gait and his absence from that afternoon’s practice are any indication, the chance that he’ll be ready for the home opener as once predicted during the offseason is doubtful.
After re-injuring that knee while running pass routes and undergoing arthroscopic surgery on July 31, the injury originally sustained one day shy of a year on Saturday will likely keep Mitchell off the field for another shot at Clemson.
How it all went down was about as freak as an accident can get: jumping to celebrate someone else’s success and then landing awkwardly enough to tear an ACL.
It was as included at the very top of a Sports Illustrated list chronicling athletes who have injured themselves or others while celebrating. And it is being used as an example a year later.
“Coach (Mark) Richt, he kind of joked around about it,” senior safety Corey Moore said. “I think we all learned from that situation. We always keep it in the back of our mind. That was a freakish accident that happened but we try to stay careful.”
As players and coaches often say, injuries are as much a part of the game as the ball. Although coaches have mentioned Mitchell’s celebration to their players, any warning about injury presents a Catch-22 for players like junior outside linebacker Jordan Jenkins. It is the ever-looming threat of injury that Jenkins said changed his approach to the game this year and motivated him to have one of his best preseason camps yet.
“This doesn’t last forever,” he said. “You can get hurt any play, any down. It just can be taken from you at any time.”
When the topic of injuries comes up, both coaches and players conceded that focusing on the often unavoidable can distract from playing aggressively.
“While you’re out there, you want to worry about injuries but at the same time, you can’t really worry about it because you have to go hard every play,” Jenkins said. “It’s just a part of the game.”
Mid-play injuries, that is. But when the whistle blows, players do have control. Jenkins agreed “to some extent” that he and his teammates could exercise a bit more caution should Gurley blow up again on the offense’s opening drive on Saturday.
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