WATCH THE VIDEO HERE!
WATCH THE VIDEO HERE!Injuries can be difficult for athletes to overcome. An injury sidelined a Bishop Heelan running back during his senior season and threatened his college football career. “I planted my foot to cut and someone on my right side fell on it and it just like turned and snapped in,” said former Bishop Heelan running back Isaiah Favors. Favors had many memories at Memorial Field, some better than others. Just one week before the Heelan Crusaders first scrimmage of the year, his senior season had came to a halt.
“It was just a big, big year for him, his senior year there was a lot riding on it,” said Myrah Favors, Isaiah’s mother. Dr. Phinit Phisitkul a Board-Certified Orthopaedic Surgeon, who specializes in general orthopedics at CNOS performed the surgery to repair Favors’ right ankle. “There are three ligaments in there that are outside the ankle joint, but this is the most vulnerable, the thinnest one, and it’s got injured very often. So, when you twist your ankle in a severe form like that, then this ligament can become completely ruptured, and at the end, the ankle might appear to be healed, but there is some laxity inside,” said Phisitkul.
After the surgery, Isaiah spent his senior year in recovery. “Recovery process is probably as important as the surgery its self,” said Phisitkul. As he recovered, Favors had to deal with an uncertain future. Before the injury, he had several scholarship offers to play football in college. After the injury the offers disappeared. “What we mourned as a family and Isaiah was the reality that he was not going to have a senior season, that he was not going to be able to get to where he worked so hard to get to and it was dependent on his senior season,” said Myrah Favors.
“It was really difficult to stay positive. I would say when it first happened it was a lot more of like pouting, I just really didn’t want to be anywhere, I had no drive to do anything. But I kind of tried to just block that out of my mind as I went through the year, and try to just understand what blessings I do have and kind of just latch onto those,” said Isaiah Favors. After months in a walking boot, and physical therapy, Favors was able to fully sprint a few weeks before heading to fall football camp at Minnesota State University-Moorhead. “The best part is definitely football for me because I just haven‘t played in so long so it’s fun to be back on the field and back in the flow like working out, running around, playing the game that I love,” said Isaiah Favors.
Favors decided to “redshirt” his freshman season to allow his ankle more time to heal. He says he’s grateful to Dr. Phisitkul and the work he’s done.