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Carl Nicks Has Lifetime Toe Injury
August 12th, 2013
When Woody Cummings of the Tampa Tribune spied Bucs guard Carl Nicks walking into One Buc Palace on reporting day to start training camp with his injured toe “heavily bandaged,” it sent up red flags and had Bucs fans scrambling to the liquor cabinet.
Well, it seems Bucs fans had good reason to drink. And the following news likely will have Bucs fans doing shots this afternoon, and not in a celebratory mode.
Carl Nicks is hurt. His toe, as Bucs coach Greg Schiano suggested early in training camp, is not completely healed and Nicks will have to fight through the injury all season, provided he can make it through the whole season.
In fact, Nicks told Joe and the assembled Tampa Bay pen and mic club that this injury will be with him for the rest of his days.
“I will have to deal with it my whole life,” Nicks said. “Honestly, it is not 100 percent, yet. I plan on playing some this next preseason game and obviously, the third one. We will see how it goes.”
Nicks has played sparsely in training camp in seven-on-seven drills and scrimmages because of his toe. Nicks noted what Schiano had said is correct; It’s something that he will have to play through in order to stay on the field for the Bucs this season.
“I have all the confidence in the world I will be back to playing,” Nicks said. “I will just have to deal with it my whole life. I would lie if I told you it didn’t affect me at all. It affects the way I walk, the way I stand around. I have to stand a certain kind of way. It is something I just have to deal with. I don’t want to get into taking painkillers and not knowing if it is hurting.”
Nicks’ injury was described last year as a “turf toe,” a malady that aflicts many a football player. But players, after much rehab, generally return and recover. Nicks noted, however, it may not just be turf toe.
“It’s been described as many different things,” Nicks said.
Nicks stated that the more he is on it, the more it hurts. He practiced roughly three-fourths of a practice recently and the toe was barking loudly at him. He also noted that the Bucs may ease up on Nicks’ practices in order for him and his toe to be as close to 100 percent as possible by gametime, not unlike what Raheem Morris did for Sgt. Winslow and his bad knees.
“It absolutely” hinders his stamina, Nicks offered.
Nicks is, obviously, frustrated about his toe. If he is healthy, Nicks said the Bucs’ offensive line could be dominating.
“Oh, it could be something special.”
