One month ago many of us didn’t think it was possible, but Packers cornerback Al Harris has been given medical clearance to return to the playing field when the Packers battle the Titans on Nov. 2nd, less than two months removed from lacerating his spleen:
“I’m ready to go,” Harris said before he and most of his Packers teammates departed Tuesday afternoon for their five days off for the bye week. “It’s totally up to them, however they want to use me.”
What does Al mean when he says ‘however they want to use me’?
Given how well Tramon Williams has played in his place, the Packers might be inclined to ease Harris into the rotation perhaps by putting him in Williams’ old role as the nickel or No. 3 cornerback.
How did 3irty1 spend his time recovering?
Immediately after the injury, he could do nothing — “absolutely nothing,” he said — for one week.
“There’s no treatment for it,” Harris said. “Your body has to heal on its own when it comes to an injury like that.”
After a week, he began some lightweight lifting and conditioning on stationary equipment but he could not run because he said he “couldn’t do anything to shake up your insides.”
Al adds he “just concentrated on my family and my kids just to keep my mind off it.”
Will he need to play it safe, wear protective gear or do anything different than he did before the injury?
He figures he’ll wear some protective device or padding, but said the rib cage should provide enough protection.
“You see a lot of spleen injuries in car accidents, so I think it was more of the impact and I was turned a weird way,” Harris said. “This was really like a freak thing. Maybe it was just time to sit down for a little bit.”
