A segment of Daniel Popper’s article in The Athletic:
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Slowing down Von Miller, Hunter Henry shed tears over latest injury, Melvin Ingram’s replacement … and tacos
By Daniel Popper
... Henry on his injuryThere were four people left in the Chargers home locker room at Dignity Health Sports Park: Hunter Henry, two public relations staffers and me. The Chargers had just beaten the Colts in dramatic fashion on a game-winning overtime touchdown drive in Week 1.
Henry — who had caught one of the game’s biggest passes, a 17-yard reception in OT that moved the Chargers into Indy territory — put his backpack over his shoulder and was about to walk out of the back entrance when I grabbed him for an interview.
Henry had suffered a knee injury on one of the final plays of regulation. But after spending a few minutes on the training table, he was back in the game to aid in the heroics. I asked him if there was any way he was going to stay out of the game.
“Oh no, man. Shoot, I hated missing those last few snaps,” Henry replied. “But I just got kind of banged on it and I just needed to loosen it up.”
It seemed so benign. Nothing to worry about. And yet three days later, the Chargers announced that Henry had suffered a tibial plateau fracture in his left knee. This, after Henry had missed the entire 2018 regular season because of a torn ACL he sustained in a non-contact drill during spring practices.
This week, Henry described the emotions he felt after hearing the diagnosis after the win over the Colts.
“Shoot, it was devastating, bro,” Henry said before taking a deep breath and exhaling slowly. “Super crushing. Shit, I cried and everything, man. It was just a lot of emotions just because of everything I’ve been through, and, I don’t know, it was just something that was out of my control.
“It’s been a frustrating injury just because of how I feel and it’s really not that bad. It’s not bad in my mind. …I don’t have that much pain or anything like that. So it’s been a frustrating injury just because a lot of it’s kind of out of my hands.”
Henry said he “didn’t think anything of” the injury the Monday after the Colts game. He had some swelling but said “it wasn’t anything crazy.”
“Once it went away, I was fine,” Henry said of the swelling.
But then he underwent a scan, and the doctors informed him of the fracture. There’s no way, Henry remembered thinking.
“When they told me, I really didn’t believe them,” Henry said. “So I got different opinions and different things like that just to see. … But everybody came back with the same thing. It’s been tough. It still is, definitely. But starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel for this injury, at least. So I’m excited to get back out there.”
This week, Henry was out on the practice field for the first time since the injury. He wore a brace on his left knee as he ran some sprints with his helmet on.
He was only working off to the side doing rehab. But he’s getting close to a return.
“After you go through what I went through, missing a whole year last year and just having to stand on the sidelines and watch, that was a lot,” Henry said. “It was very draining last year, just having to sit back and watch. I’d never had to do anything like that. And then the first game rolls around and I felt great, played a great game, and then kind of towards the end of the game had that one thing happen. So minor. It’s just something that’s just crazy.
“It filled me with a lot of emotions just because I hate not being out there after not being out there last year. There was just a lot of things. I felt like I let down my teammates. I mean, it’s nothing that I can control, but this is just the emotions I felt — letting down my teammates, letting down the coaching staff. And also just the amount of work I put in behind the scenes that people don’t really see just to get back (from the ACL). … Just to get it back to myself, it was tough. So that part was hard.”
theathletic.com/1269061/2019/10/04/slowing-down-von-miller-hunter-henry-shed-tears-over-latest-injury-melvin-ingrams-replacement-and-tacos/
