King for a day

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 31/07/2011 (5185 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

His pro beginnings started down a front-page path, fuelled by limousines and a dinner at Winnipeg’s best steakhouse: Meals and wheels fit for the CFL’s draft king.

Today — and many, many days prior to this day — rookie linebacker Henoc Muamba travels a different road, one without the cameras and interview requests.

Unfortunately, everything around him now is stuck in neutral and as the East Division leading Blue Bombers (4-1) enter another week of practice Monday at Canad Inns Stadium, we remember the fanfare of his Blue and Gold inclusion and note that Muamba has to yet to make his CFL debut.

And with all the success this young season, he has been a forgotten man.

It wasn’t supposed to be like this.

“Yeah, it’s been very tough some days,” the 22-year-old said last week. “Obviously this is not the start you ever envision or want for yourself, but things happen that you can’t predict sometimes. It’s how you come back from those situations and your attitude during and after.”

According to the Bombers, the news on Muamba’s knee is not great. Two weeks ago, the club suggested he’d be 1-2 weeks away. Friday, as the dust settled on Winnipeg’s 25-20 win over the B.C. Lions, the head coach offered a grim recovery timetable update.

“Henoc is getting better, but I think it’s going to be after the bye week,” Paul LaPolice said on when Muamba might return.

A check of the calendar shows the rookie might not get on the practice field until Aug. 22.

Recall that he hurt the knee on a special teams tackle in a June 23 pre-season game in Montreal, and he’s already missed over five weeks of action.

Yes, the team is being extra careful with their top draft pick. Four wins in five games affords them that luxury.

There’s always a chance he could get on the field before the LaPolice forecast. That’s small consolation, though, as he hasn’t been able to practice with the club or make any of the road trips through the first month of the season. In other words, he hasn’t been able to really soak in all that being a professional football player entails in his first season.

Instead, he’s been banished to the sidelines, watching and waiting.

Back in May, prior to the CFL college draft, the top Bomber brass wooed him something special, celebrating what a great player he is and what a star he will be in the CFL. Once drafted, followers of the team, buoyed with the optimism of having the No. 1 pick, embraced him on social media sites, the well-wishes for a long career in Winnipeg flooding his Twitter timeline.

Now, he just waits. And watches.

When the club goes on the road, the youngster remains in Winnipeg — getting treatment for the knee in the morning, finding different ways to kill the long hours in the day, and tuning into the game in the evening, trying not to dwell on the fact he’s not there with his teammates.

Muamba, whose older brother Cauchy is a safety with B.C., says he’s never had to spend this much time away from the field during any season and the ups and downs of being injured to start his CFL career have let left him at times, well, up and down.

“Of course — that’s only human, right?” he said. “But I’m a positive guy and I like to surround myself with positive people. I talk to my family quite a bit. But there are times where you wake up in the morning and say ‘Man, I’m going to have to watch practice again.’ It’s hard not to think like that, but you have to stay positive.

“The fact that it’s getting better, that’s what I’m focusing on now.”

Often players, especially those who take the time to notice things around them, will learn a lot about themselves when dealing with a long-term injury. They spend so much time in their own head that they gather a better understanding of what’s important and tap into a level of maturity they never knew they had.

Not surprisingly, the spiritual Muamba says he hasn’t experienced any of that, though. Instead, this waiting has just affirmed his self-worth.

“I knew I was a patient person already — so this has just been a really big test of that patience,” he said. “I probably grew my own patience even larger from this injury so if there’s a silver lining in this, maybe that’s it.”

adam.wazny@freepress.mb.ca