Trundle Recovering From Femur Break

 STAFF PHOTO BEN GOFF @NWABenGoff Tristan Trundle, Pea Ridge tight end/defensive end, watches his teammates practice Monday during the team camp hosted by Gravette in Lions Stadium.
STAFF PHOTO BEN GOFF @NWABenGoff Tristan Trundle, Pea Ridge tight end/defensive end, watches his teammates practice Monday during the team camp hosted by Gravette in Lions Stadium.

GRAVETTE -- Tristan Trundle heard a loud pop after he planted his right foot into the turf at Blackhawk Stadium.

It was a non-contact passing drill under a June 2 sun, and the Pea Ridge football team was doing skeleton drills in shorts and T-shirts.

Profile

Tristan Trundle

School: Pea Ridge

Class: Senior

Height: 6-3

Weight: 180

Position: Tight end/defensive end

Notable: Expected to be a two-way starter for the Blackhawks at tight end and defensive end. … Broke the femur bone in his right leg on June 2. … Also a standout in golf, basketball and baseball.

"I ran a Y shake route and I was trying to cut between two coaches," Trundle said. "It make a loud pop and it felt like somebody hit me. That's what I thought happened, but there was no one around me."

The pop Trundle heard was the femur bone in his right thigh snapping. It was a gruesome break and Trundle instantly thought it might be the end of his playing days.

"I went down and my femur was doing a left turn, and I was like, 'man, I'm never going to play sports again.'"

Trundle (6-foot-6, 180 pounds) is a two-way starter for the Blackhawks, who are hoping to reverse a 1-9 record last season. He underwent surgery after the injury and a steel rod was placed in his leg that runs from his hip to his knee.

After the surgery, he immediately began rehab and the outlook for his recovery has been remarkable. Trundle said Monday his was two to three weeks ahead of schedule and could be at full strength by midseason, if not a little sooner.

"He's ahead of schedule," Pea Ridge coach Tony Travis said. "With an injury like that I'm hesitant to say yes or no on if he will return, but I'm optimistic that we will get him back at some point this year. I just don't know when."

Trundle is scheduled to have the leg x-rayed today, which should give him a better idea of how much the leg has healed and a better idea of when he can expect a return to the team.

On Monday during the final team camp of the summer, Trundle was in the middle of his team's huddle, lending advice and trying to help coach the team. But Travis is cautiously optimistic that his tight end/defensive end will soon be more than a spectator in shorts and a T-shirt.

"He's a big piece of our team," Travis said. "He's a returning two-way starter. His rehab has gone great, but we're not going to push him back too soon. We have to make sure he's ready when he comes back."

The femur injury actually may have occurred last season, Trundle said. He took a shot to his right knee that dislocated his knee cap. But event after that injury healed, he continued to have issues with the knee.

"They said that was probably related to my femur, that it was probably already fractured and it was causing the knee pain," Trundle said.

Trundle plays multiple sports at Pea Ridge, and has already been playing golf. He said the femur injury may have actually helped his golf game.

"I don't know how, I guess just sheer luck, but I've taken like 12 strokes off my game," he said.

Travis said when Trundle first went down, coaches feared the injury was a torn ACL. But even though the bone break was gruesome, a torn ACL would have likely meant Trundle's entire senior year would have been lost.

"It was crazy. You've seen the non-contact ACL injuries and that's what it looked like," Travis said. "My first thought was that was what he had done. He planted, turned up after he caught the ball and he went down.

"The doctors and the trainers say that this was better than an ACL team, but when you have a kid laying on the field with a broken femur, it doesn't feel like it at the time."

Sports on 07/30/2014

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