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USC : Smith Plays Waiting Game With Burns’ Neck Injury

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TIMES STAFF WRITER

DeChon Burns, projected as a starter at cornerback for the USC football team, suffered a possibly serious neck injury last Thursday in practice, Trojan Coach Larry Smith said Saturday.

Burns, a sophomore from Rubidoux High in Riverside, was injured after being hit by reserve fullback Ed Chavez, who knocked Burns into the air and onto his back. As Burns landed, his head snapped back.

“His head whiplashed off the ground,” Smith said.

X-rays revealed no chips or cracks in the spinal cord, Smith said, but Burns’ status will not be known until Monday, when results of a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) test are evaluated by neurological surgeon Michael Apuzzo.

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The injury has been diagnosed as a contused spinal cord.

“I think it’s a pretty serious thing,” Smith said. “That’s why they’re taking a lot of time in doing about every test there is because we certainly don’t want to put anybody back on the field if he’d be putting his life or any part of his body in jeopardy.”

Burns, who wore a neck brace Saturday as he watched the Trojans scrimmage at USC, said that his neck feels fine, but that he has felt a tingling sensation in his right arm since he was injured.

“I’m anxious,” he said. “I’d like to find out what’s going on. The Syracuse game (Aug. 31 at East Rutherford, N.J.) is in two weeks and I would like to know where I stand and how severe this is.”

Trojan Notes

Quarterback Todd Marinovich completed 16 of 28 passes for 196 yards in a 137-play scrimmage that Coach Larry Smith described as “very average.” Marinovich’s backup, Shane Foley, completed eight of 12 passes for 95 yards and a touchdown. . . . Touchdowns were scored by tailback Ricky Ervins (on a one-yard run), reserve fullback Ed Chavez (on a 12-yard pass from Foley) and walk-on split end Tom Brown (on a 36-yard pass from walk-on quarterback Damien Pierre). . . . Ervins had five catches for 45 yards and flanker Gary Wellman had four catches for 53 yards. . . . Cornerback DeChon Burns was replaced in the first-team defense by Marcel Brown, a redshirt freshman from San Diego.

Marinovich will wear braces on his ankles this season after he badly sprained his left ankle in a scrimmage at the end of spring practice. “It’s been giving me problems all summer,” Marinovich said last week of the injury, which was sustained when a defender rolled over his ankle. “I’ve been re-twisting it and it’s never fully recovered.” . . . Joel Scott, projected as a starter at split end, has yet to practice at full speed after injuring an ankle playing basketball, but Smith hopes to have him back as early as next week.

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