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Written by Justin Creech
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Thursday, 20 December 2007 |
Fairfax, VA- Darryl Monroe stood and watched as his teammates shot free throws before practice on Tuesday. It is what the 6’7, 260 pound senior forward has done for the last two months as he rehabs from surgery on his right big toe. Unfortunately for Monroe it is what he will do for the remainder of the year. On Tuesday it was announced that Monroe will take a medical redshirt for the remainder of the 2007-2008 season.
The medical redshirt will allow Monroe to return for the 2008-2009 season.
“It’s disappointing, but it helps me get healthy and helps me get better,” said Monroe of the medical redshirt. “My health is what is most important because without me being healthy I really can’t help the team like I should be able to.”
Monroe has been sidelined since Oct 9, when exploratory surgery revealed bone spurs in Monroe’s right big toe. The hope was Monroe would return 4-6 weeks after the surgery, and though he has improved, he is still not healthy enough to return in the near future.
“We have been evaluating Darryl’s physical status since he came out of surgery,” said George Mason coach Jim Larranaga on Tuesday. “Although Darryl has made some nice progress he has not yet reached the point that he can play without pain.”
Larranaga said he spoke with Monroe on Saturday and both agreed that by the time Monroe would be healthy enough to play, too much time would have passed for Monroe to be a consistent contributor.
“It would be difficult for him to get himself into great shape physically,” said Larranaga. “So Darryl felt the best thing for him to do was rehab the toe throughout this season and try to have a productive [offseason] and come back next year and have a very strong senior year.”
Going into the surgery, Monroe said he knew not playing this year might be a possibility since the extent of the injury was not known.
“It was always there, but my goal was to get back and play this year,” said Monroe. “It just happened to end up this way.”
Monroe suffered the injury while in junior college. He played the entire 2006-2007 season with the injury after it was decided that everyday treatment would be the best way to heal the injury. Monroe said the toe bothered him all of last season, but he continued to play because he had become used to playing with the pain, but sought help over the summer.
“I saw a doctor this summer and he gave me some medicine that helped it for like a month,” said Monroe. “[But] then it just got like it was before, and when we came into pre-season workouts it flared up again, so we decided surgery was the best thing to do.”
Monroe rehabs his toe everyday, doing strengthening exercises with the team's head trainer Debi Corbatto. The treatment takes 45 minutes to an hour to complete before Monroe joins his teammates for practice. One player who knows first hand the challenge of missing an entire season is redshirt junior guard John Vaughan.
Vaughan missed the entire 2005-2006 season rehabbing an ACL tear, while his teammates made their historic run to the Final Four.
“The hardest part is not being able to play,” said Vaughan. “I know Darryl has a passion for the game, but at the same time being healthy is a very important part of the game, and as much as we wanted Darryl to play this year the most important thing is his health.”
Vaughan said the year he was out allowed him to see the game from a coaches point of view. He was able to better understand why his coaches harped on he and his teammates about certain things, while also being able to see his teammates’ tendencies as well as the opponents' tendencies.
Vaughan said the same should hold true for Monroe, but that it will be important for he and his teammates to make sure Monroe does not get down on himself.
“Just keeping his spirits up, keeping him involved in everything we do,” said Vaughan. “Not isolating him and try to talk about other things outside of basketball. That should keep his mind off of not playing.”
Monroe said he has already picked up on the coaching side of not playing. He gives fellow forwards Louis Birdsong, Chris Fleming and freshmen Vlad Moldoveanu pointers whenever he can as he tries to get healthy.
“It will help me see things,” said Monroe of how not playing this season will benefit him. “I guess me not being able to play I can give [Birdsong, Fleming and Moldoveanu] pointers. I try to do that and learn things by watching the games.
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George Mason 