Derting, Abdullah defy odds and return
PULLMAN — Go ahead and give the preseason MVP award to the Washington State medical staff.
Well ahead of schedule, defensive captains Will Derting and Hamza Abdullah both returned to the practice field on Tuesday, the team’s first session after taking two days off.
Neither Derting, a preseason All-American at middle linebacker, nor Abdullah, a fifth-year senior at free safety, has been cleared for contact drills. They are also both questionable for the season opener at New Mexico on Sept. 3.
But their return makes head coach Bill Doba’s ongoing optimism about their chances of playing sound more logical than it did just a few days ago. And when asked after practice if he thought the captains would play, Doba was still singing the same tune.
“That’s what we’re planning on right now,” he said. “Today, tomorrow, Friday, Saturday, I don’t care so long as we get them back. They’re leaders. It’s important, and it’s nice to have them up in front of the stretch line again. With tough people and good leaders, it’s like you and I or anybody else. When that tough guy (goes), it’s like let’s me and you go fight that guy. It helps give everyone a little more confidence and more courage.”
Both players are wearing casts on their left arms – Derting to protect his dislocated left wrist and Abdullah to cover his surgically repaired left thumb. But the return came after both made significant progress following the initial injuries, which occurred on back-to-back days two weekends ago.
Derting had his initial cast removed and a slightly smaller one put in its place. Even still, the cast, plus the tape around it, inflates his forearm to almost comical size, making the omnipresent linebacker even easier to spot.
“It’s like a half-inch pad around the whole thing, I got plastic around my thumb. I don’t know, a whole bunch (of tape),” Derting said. “Being in the training room, I don’t get to hang out with the guys for two hours, which I’m used to all the time. So it’s really nice.”
Derting is already thinking of possible problems – and new tackling possibilities – for the club that covers his arm and hand.
“I think shedding blockers is going to be the problem,” Derting said. “You never know. Give me a weapon like this, I might have to use it.”
Abdullah’s return might register as the bigger surprise, seeing as how he was on an operating table just nine days ago to repair a torn ligament.
The safety couldn’t return until his stitches were taken out, and by the time doctors did so on Monday, it was almost too late.
Abdullah said the stitches had already started to grow in, and he isn’t taking any medication or feeling any pain from the surgery. Those encouraging signs fueled his own optimism, which by the sounds of it exceeds even Doba’s.
“When I first did it, they told me 6 to 8 weeks, definitely out for Colorado and Albuquerque,” Abdullah said. “I was down, but now they told me if all goes well I’ll be able to play in Albuquerque. So now I’m just keeping my fingers crossed – and my toes.
“Whatever it takes to get out there. I’ll play in two casts if I need to.”
Notes
Two other players, running back Allen Thompson and guard Riley Fitt-Chappell were cleared to return as expected from concussions. … Outside linebacker Pat Bennett is now the lone linebacker out. He’s day to day with a strained hamstring, but reported some discomfort after running. … Doba thought giving his players an extra day of rest on Sunday in addition to the planned off-day on Monday worked well. “The 48-hour break gave them a chance to heal up,” he said. “It was a very spirited practice. They did a nice job.” … The Cougars are moving into their regular in-season schedule, practicing again at 3:30 this afternoon.