Cowboys starter claims he couldn't 'put words together' after injury
Cowboys defensive end David Irving was diagnosed with a concussion after the Cowboys beat the Redskins 38-14 on Nov. 30, but little did he know at the time just how serious it was.
Typically, a person who gets a concussion knows when it happens. But in Irving’s case, he wasn’t diagnosed until after the game.
The concussion happened on a play in the first quarter of that game, according to the Fort Worth Star- Telegram, and while Irving said he didn’t feel right, he kept playing and didn’t tell team doctors.
He even had this sack on Kirk Cousins late in that game.
After the game, he was diagnosed with the concussion and placed into concussion protocol. He never returned to the playing field for the rest of the season.
In a recent interview with the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Irving talked about just how difficult it’s been.
“It’s hard to put my words in order,” Irving said. “I’ll be talking and I’ll know what I want to say but then when it’s time to talk, I can’t say it. I look like a deer caught in headlights.”
“I couldn’t have said that a few weeks ago,” Irving added. “I wouldn’t have thought of that. But yeah, it’s getting better, getting easier.”
The problems started the day after his injury. Irving told Mike Fisher at Scout.com he got in a car accident that day.
“I rolled through a stop sign and got in a fender-bender with the truck ahead of me, and didn’t even realize what I’d done or where I was,’’ Irving told Fisher. “That’s when I knew I needed help.
“It wasn’t just headaches. It was confusion, just forgetting things. It did scare me at first. You know for a while it didn’t seem like it was getting better. I’ve never really had one this bad.
“I’ll be looking for my phone and it’s like right in my hand and I’m just looking everywhere for it,” Irving added. “But that hasn’t happened for a couple of weeks now.”
#Cowboys DE David Irving played through a #concussion on November 30th. Four weeks later, he's still suffering symptoms. Read more:https://t.co/cdfYmn9PfW
— Concussion Legacy Foundation (@ConcussionLF) January 2, 2018
It’s been a frustrating season for Irving, who missed the first four games because he was suspended for performance enhancing drugs and the last four games due to the concussion.
Irving said the PED violation was due to the fact that he ingested a banned substance that wasn’t listed as an ingredient in the supplement he took.
But in the eight games he played, he had quite an impact, finishing with seven sacks, second on the team.
A reminder to consider daily activity modification following concussion, such as driving, to ensure safety of athletes and those around. https://t.co/32aAULG1nL
— UGAconcussion (@UGAconcussion) January 2, 2018
“It’s a bad season,” Irving said. “I missed eight games. That’s not good. I keep thinking what if I had played all the games. Come back next year. Stay the hell out of trouble. Hopefully, I won’t get injured. And see what I can do next year.”
Considering the debilitating effects of CTE, the Cowboys and Irving will likely take every precaution to make sure he’s healthy enough to play and there are no long-term effects.
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