Carey Murdock of soonerscoop.com on the Rivals network reports that DeMarco Murray has suffered a strained hamstring during summer voluntary workouts. The injury isn't reported to be too serious, but Bob Stoops and the coaching staff are approaching it with caution.
"Demarco Murray has been bitten by the injury bug once again. Murray, who missed Oklahoma's last two bowl games after season ending injuries in 2007 and 2008, suffered a strained hamstring during voluntary workouts over the summer. Murray missed last season's national championship game after tearing his hamstring against Missouri in the Big 12 Championship game. His strained hamstring was not the same hamstring he had surgically repaired last spring, but team physicians are taking things slow with the player many perceived as one of college football's most dangerous weapons just two years ago. Murray's current injury is classified as more of a bump and bruise by Bob Stoops.
"We have several of those through the summer and the winter when guys are doing a lot of training," said Stoops. "I feel (he'll) be prepared and ready to go from the start." Stoops also said on Friday that team doctors have released a projected timetable for Murray's return - two weeks prior to OU's season opener against BYU. But it's still a disappointing development for Murray, who has answered more questions about his health than his big plays over the last year. Last season, Murray was slow out of the gate. The questions about his injuries plagued the then-sophomore until he started to break out of his shell late in the season, when he finally started showing flashes of the dynamic player Sooner fans had come to love before dislocating his knee cap against Texas Tech in 2007.
"Last year I tried to come back too fast and prove to the coaches that I'm still here and I'm fine," explained Murray. "That's where I messed up last year. This year I'm not going to try and force myself out there. They know what I can do and I'm confident they'll continue to have trust in me. I'll just take my time." During the Sooners first practice, Stoops said Murray was limited by OU's training staff. They'll continue to limit him until team doctors give the all clear. On Friday, Murray spent most of his day trying calm any fears about his return. "This one wasn't as bad and wasn't as serious," said Murray. "It's a little strain. It's nothing too bad. I'll bounce right back and recover fast."
Murray also wants to put those questions about his health to rest as quickly as possible. "I just look at it now and I've just got to prove myself," he said. "I'm just going to work hard so I can show everybody what I can do." Murray also believes that his return from hamstring surgery will be much different than his return from offseason surgery last season. Murray says the difference in recovery has been night and day from last season.
"This (surgery) wasn't as bad and wasn't as serious and it definitely didn't hurt as worse as my (knee cap surgery)," explained Murray. "Going through surgery the first time was kind of scary. I never had surgery in my life. It was my knee cap and last year I was doing all the (hamstring) rehab and it was a great recovery. "I recovered real fast and met everybody's expectations. It wasn't bad at all."'
That's tough luck for DeMarco and the Sooners. Here's to hoping he's 100% for the Sooners opening game against BYU on September 5.
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Well hell.
ReplyDeleteHopefully Calhoun is as good as advertised. We need a real game changer in our Bowl game and hamstring injuries are something that just don't go away for awhile.