March 4, 2015 by Todd Christman
It's appropriate that March is National Athletic Training Month. Given events of the last week, Bulls athletic trainer Jeff Tananka and Blackhawks athletic trainer Mike Gapski will be more than earning their pay over the next four weeks – and longer.
Gapski will be busy with Johnny Oduya, who is out another week or so with an “upper body” injury, suffered nine days ago. Then, just two days later, leading scorer Patrick Kane suffered an “upper body” injury of his own.
In Kane’s case, the Blackhawks ultimately came clean and acknowledged the specific nature of the injury, a fractured clavicle, because his season was effectively ended. Officially out for 12 weeks, the earliest Kane would be back is deep in the playoffs, when such a return would be unwise.
At least in Gapski’s case, there is no pressure on him to speed Kane’s recovery.
The same cannot be said of Tanaka. He is now saddled with Jimmy Butler’s (20.4 ppg) hyperextended elbow, suffered in Sunday’s loss to the Clippers, to go along with the mandate from GM Gar Forman to have Derrick Rose (18.4 ppg) back in 4-6 weeks.
You can read the full version of this article in The Times. John Doherty is a licensed athletic trainer and physical therapist. This column reflects solely his opinion. Reach him at jdoherty@comhs.org. Follow him on Twitter @JDohertyATCPT.
Gapski will be busy with Johnny Oduya, who is out another week or so with an “upper body” injury, suffered nine days ago. Then, just two days later, leading scorer Patrick Kane suffered an “upper body” injury of his own.
In Kane’s case, the Blackhawks ultimately came clean and acknowledged the specific nature of the injury, a fractured clavicle, because his season was effectively ended. Officially out for 12 weeks, the earliest Kane would be back is deep in the playoffs, when such a return would be unwise.
At least in Gapski’s case, there is no pressure on him to speed Kane’s recovery.
The same cannot be said of Tanaka. He is now saddled with Jimmy Butler’s (20.4 ppg) hyperextended elbow, suffered in Sunday’s loss to the Clippers, to go along with the mandate from GM Gar Forman to have Derrick Rose (18.4 ppg) back in 4-6 weeks.
You can read the full version of this article in The Times. John Doherty is a licensed athletic trainer and physical therapist. This column reflects solely his opinion. Reach him at jdoherty@comhs.org. Follow him on Twitter @JDohertyATCPT.
