Injury – it’s part of the game. When an athlete steps onto the field, court or starting blocks, they accept the risk of physical injury. Anybody who saw the Louisville v. Duke game March 31 saw firsthand how gruesome athletic injuries can be.

“Just like all athletes, my runners are competitive and they try to tough it out for a while, which might cause them to favor one part of their body or worsen the injury,” said Eric Wellman, head cross country and distance track coach. “Injured athletes work with the athletic trainers in the training room to diagnose what is going on and to come up with a plan to get the athlete back healthy.”

With over 100 athletes on the football team alone, injury is inevitable and players do everything possible to avoid it.

“We work on prevention, and communication with coaches and trainers,” Wellman said. “It’s important, but injuries are still going to happen.”

Even though most injuries are not as bad as Louisville’s Kevin Ware’s fractured leg, small injuries, like strains and tears, can cause athletes major pain and can still require surgery and rehabilitation.

Alex Linsey, sophomore javelin thrower and business major, tore his ulnar lateral ligament in practice last January and had to have surgery last year. Even though a torn UCL can be fixed, it still requires nine to 18 months of recovery.

“The injury is common for javelin throwers and baseball pitchers,” Linsey said. “It has affected my training. Throughout the last two years I have redshirted…I am not at full strength, and I plan on coming back next year and should be 100 percent healthy. The injury requires me to do rehab almost every day to re-strengthen everything around the elbow and shoulder.”

Even though athletes are usually only signed to one-year contracts, an injured athlete is still given a scholarship for the full year if they suffer an injury and are usually awarded the same money the next year if they can recover. The NCAA does not allow a university to take away a student scholarship that year if they suffer an injury in their sport.

“Once the year is up, the college isn’t obligated to continue the scholarship, but we personally, in the track program, try to give the applicant the benefit of the doubt,” Wellman said. “We do the best we can to leave them on the scholarship money they are on and give them a chance to come back when they are healthy.”

“Win the game,” is all Ware told his team as he was being carried off the court, showing that some athletes can put the team and the love of the game above their own physical health and are willing to sacrifice to achieve it.