League-wide plague of Achilles injuries hits Bombers

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 28/07/2021 (1505 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Since CFL training camp began earlier this month, 10 players league-wide have torn their Achilles tendons.

The latest is Winnipeg Blue Bombers wide receiver Blake Jackson who was carted off the field on Sunday.

“He’s done for the season. He’s had surgery and gone home. He tore his Achilles unfortunately in a walkthrough type setting,” head coach Mike O’Shea told reporters Wednesday.

Jackson was turning heads these past few weeks and boasted one of the most interesting stories in camp. The 27-year-old from Houston, Texas, won a Div. III national title at quarterback for Mary Hardin-Baylor as a senior. In the pros he converted to receiver and attended Calgary Stampeders training camp in 2018 before spending some time in the NFL with the Cleveland Browns and later the Houston Roughnecks of the XFL.

He’s the second Bomber to go down for the year with an Achilles injury as defensive back Mercy Maston suffered the same injury July 18. O’Shea said he didn’t have a theory as to why so many players have had Achilles tears in camp, but Saskatchewan Roughriders head coach Craig Dickenson spoke about the issue on the weekend. The Riders have had five players, most recently defensive lineman Tim Williams, fall victim to the injury.

“It’s just wild, isn’t it?” I don’t know. It’s something that I’ll look at closely with the trainers and our people in the off-season and try to figure something out, but it is just a head-scratcher right now. I think the layoff — that’s the X-factor,” Dickenson told reporters. “… I’ve never seen that many Achilles injuries ever and so to lose another one is really, really tough. Hopefully — knock on wood — that’s the last one, but you never know. It’s a violent game and guys are playing hard and being explosive and sometimes those things happen, but we certainly hope we’ve seen the last of those.”

HERE COMES THE NOISE

For the first time this season, the Bombers pumped in some crowd noise at practice Wednesday.

It’s usually something they do to prepare for road games with a hostile environment, but even though they open the season at IG Field on Aug. 5 against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, O’Shea said it’s still an excercise worth doing.

“There’s going to be certain times in the game where there’s gonna be crowd noise for both sides,” O’Shea said.

“As much as we know our fans are the most intelligent fans in the league, there’s gonna be times when they’re cheering on the beer snake or something like that and the next thing you know, our offence is out there running plays.”

taylor.allen@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @TaylorAllen31