WELL-HEALED

USC’s Desmond Reed lay sprawled on the ankle-deep turf at Notre Dame Stadium, the ligaments in his right knee mangled after he twisted to field a kickoff last October.

This week, nine months after surgery to repair ligaments, team doctors cleared Reed to play in the Sept. 2 season opener against Arkansas.

The junior has been fitted with a custom knee brace. He cannot flex his right foot because of nerve damage, so he also wears a foot-and-ankle brace wrapped heavily in tape. Reed said at least one expert cautioned against returning so soon, but he believes he is ready.

“I have no fears that I will get injured again,” Reed said. “That’s just the type of attitude, being an athlete, you have to have.”

Reed’s speedy return from such a major injury is unusual. His attitude is not.

Trojans cornerback Terrell Thomas and safety Kevin Ellison participated in spring practice five months after major knee operations and are confidently on track to start the opener. So is safety Josh Pinkard, less than five months removed from abdominal surgery.

Quarterback John David Booty had back surgery in late March, but has not missed a day of training camp and will start the opener barring a setback.

According to experts, less invasive surgical techniques and aggressive rehabilitation strategies help players return quickly from what were once regarded as career-ending injuries.

But how fast is too fast?

“It’s hard to put an absolute time limit on each person and each injury because each person heals at a different rate,” said Dr. Robert Sallis, president-elect of the American College of Sports Medicine. “The bottom line is the athlete has to show he’s gone through all the steps to return to play under proper supervision.”

For the most part, players say, coaches do not overtly pressure them to return before they are ready. Sometimes, however, a subtle but clear message is delivered.

“You get little hints, ‘We don’t want to rush you.’ But you know,” Pinkard said.

Still, Pinkard and other players said the overriding pressure to return is self-induced.

“We’re bringing in five-star athletes all the time,” said Thomas, who was injured in last year’s second game, against Arkansas. “Your job security is written in the sand, so you’ve got to get back and compete for your position.”

Dr. James Tibone, USC’s head team physician, said he often must serve as the voice of reason for players eager to return to the field and coaches who want them there.

“Doctors and trainers try to protect the players, that’s our job rather than winning or losing,” Tibone said. “There’s a fine balance between what a player wants or a coach wants.”

As the star-studded Trojans flourished in the last four seasons under Coach Pete Carroll, current and former players suggested the USC program operated more like an NFL team than a college program.

Like NFL teams, and many major college programs, USC makes anti-inflammatory and painkilling injections available to players on game days. Tibone said different types of medicines have been used at USC over the last 15 years and that the practice has not increased during Carroll’s tenure.

According to Tibone, each game about 10 to 15 players request an injection of Toradol, a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medication.

Defensive end Lawrence Jackson says players are not pressured to take shots. The wear and tear of practices and games, however, requires occasional relief.

“You wouldn’t go to work with a headache, you would take some Motrin,” Jackson said. “You don’t need it to play, but it eliminates aches and pains.”

Like Jackson, defensive tackle Sedrick Ellis said coaches have never pressured him into taking an injection. Ellis speaks to his parents and the trainer before deciding whether to take a shot.

“If it’s a serious injury and I can really hurt myself and I’ve talked to a doctor and they’ve told me that, then no, I’m not going to take a shot just to play,” Ellis said. “One game is not going to make your career.”

Carroll, who worked in the NFL for 16 years before coming to USC in 2001, said doctors might inform him about a player’s condition and the ramifications of receiving injections. Carroll said he does not pressure players to take shots, or force them to return from injuries or surgeries before they are ready.

“My whole world is taking care of these guys and the last thing I want to do is make a kid do something he’s not capable of doing,” Carroll said. “I go to sleep feeling really confident that we’re doing well there and doing right. But that doesn’t mean I don’t challenge them.”

Carroll, the USC training staff and Trojans players say a mind-over-matter approach runs throughout the program, especially in regard to healing.

“He’s really into the whole metaphysical connection with things, he’s all tapped into that,” senior fullback Brandon Hancock said last week, a few days before suffering a season-ending knee injury on Monday.

Chris Carlisle, USC’s strength and conditioning coach, said athletes are monitored in every step of their rehabilitation. Former All-American defensive tackle Shaun Cody, current middle linebacker Oscar Lua, Hancock, Ellison and Thomas all began intensive programs after knee surgeries and pursued them aggressively, according to Carlisle.

“There is a window of opportunity for healing,” he said. “If they miss that window of opportunity, the chance of re-injury occurring increases dramatically.”

Reed said he dived headlong into his rehabilitation program despite doubts that he would return this season. He said coaches did not pressure him to return.

“One of the things I hated the most was just sitting around watching my teammates play on TV and things like that and just wishing I would be out there,” he said. “It gave me a lot of motivation to get in the weight room and the rehab just to come back as soon as possible.”