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Sorry, I don't believe this is the truth. Either he, or (and this would be very bad) the Steelers team doc isn't right. Spleen gone or not, he could lose other organs if he sickles.
[url="http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09304/1009894-66.stm?cmpid=steelers.xml"]http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09304/10 ... eelers.xml[/url]
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Steelers' Clark: Docs say I can play at Denver
Saturday, October 31, 2009
By Ed Bouchette, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Steelers safety Ryan Clark said today he's been cleared by doctors to play but remains unsure whether he will take the field in Denver a week from tomorrow.
"Basically, I've been cleared by all the doctors but the decision still hasn't been made," Clark said this afternoon in an interview on ESPN Radio 1250. "We still have time. Obviously it's a Monday night game, so it's a long way from now."
Clark has sickle-cell trait and his blood reacted so poorly in the exertion of playing in the thin Denver air with the Steelers in 2007 that he became almost deathly ill after the game. He wound up having his spleen and gall bladder removed, lost 30 pounds and missed the second half of the 2007 season.
He's been consulting with his doctors for a while about whether he can play in Denver again. He said he will practice all week and at some point decide whether to play.
"Coach and I have talked about it, the doctors talked abut it, my wife and I. We'll figure it out," Clark said in the radio interview. "I'll be there either way. I'll be at the game.
"When the decision is made, I'll let coach decide when to tell the media and everybody whether or not I'm going to play, and I'm going to kind of stay out of it from that standpoint, but I will make the decision.
"If we find out there is a risk, then I'm not going to play. Unless I can be told, 'Hey, you're fine, there's nothing going to happen to any other organs,' then I'm going to play, I'll go try to hurt people and have a great time.
"But if there are any unsure moments about it, I'll sit on the sidelines and wear a hat and coach."
Clark gave an interesting reason why he wants to play in Denver.
"I think kind of the competitor in me, the ego of a football player, it's not so much I want to go beat the Broncos, as I would like to come back fully from a situation that brught me near death and kind of conquer playing in a place that made me ill in that kind of way.
"But you have to take yourself out of it from that standpoint, realize you do have children, you do have a life and you have a career that you would like to be long, so you want to come out healthy."
While he said doctors may have cleared him, they still have not done so to his satisfaction.
"That's understanding the situation enough to know nothing's going to happen to me," Clark explained. "I mean, you can hear certain things, they can put papers in front of you and tests in front of you, but until you're completely comfortable with what you're hearing, it's going to be a tough decision.
"And right now I haven't taken in enough information to make a decision either way."
For more on the Steelers, read the new blog, Ed Bouchette On the Steelers at [url="http://www.post-gazette.com/plus"]http://www.post-gazette.com/plus[/url]. Ed Bouchette can be reached at [email="ebouchette@post-gazette.com"]ebouchette@post-gazette.com[/email].
Read more: [url="http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09304/1009894-66.stm?cmpid=steelers.xml#ixzz0VZEvHGCF"]http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09304/10 ... z0VZEvHGCF[/url]
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[url="http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09304/1009894-66.stm?cmpid=steelers.xml"]http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09304/10 ... eelers.xml[/url]
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Steelers' Clark: Docs say I can play at Denver
Saturday, October 31, 2009
By Ed Bouchette, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Steelers safety Ryan Clark said today he's been cleared by doctors to play but remains unsure whether he will take the field in Denver a week from tomorrow.
"Basically, I've been cleared by all the doctors but the decision still hasn't been made," Clark said this afternoon in an interview on ESPN Radio 1250. "We still have time. Obviously it's a Monday night game, so it's a long way from now."
Clark has sickle-cell trait and his blood reacted so poorly in the exertion of playing in the thin Denver air with the Steelers in 2007 that he became almost deathly ill after the game. He wound up having his spleen and gall bladder removed, lost 30 pounds and missed the second half of the 2007 season.
He's been consulting with his doctors for a while about whether he can play in Denver again. He said he will practice all week and at some point decide whether to play.
"Coach and I have talked about it, the doctors talked abut it, my wife and I. We'll figure it out," Clark said in the radio interview. "I'll be there either way. I'll be at the game.
"When the decision is made, I'll let coach decide when to tell the media and everybody whether or not I'm going to play, and I'm going to kind of stay out of it from that standpoint, but I will make the decision.
"If we find out there is a risk, then I'm not going to play. Unless I can be told, 'Hey, you're fine, there's nothing going to happen to any other organs,' then I'm going to play, I'll go try to hurt people and have a great time.
"But if there are any unsure moments about it, I'll sit on the sidelines and wear a hat and coach."
Clark gave an interesting reason why he wants to play in Denver.
"I think kind of the competitor in me, the ego of a football player, it's not so much I want to go beat the Broncos, as I would like to come back fully from a situation that brught me near death and kind of conquer playing in a place that made me ill in that kind of way.
"But you have to take yourself out of it from that standpoint, realize you do have children, you do have a life and you have a career that you would like to be long, so you want to come out healthy."
While he said doctors may have cleared him, they still have not done so to his satisfaction.
"That's understanding the situation enough to know nothing's going to happen to me," Clark explained. "I mean, you can hear certain things, they can put papers in front of you and tests in front of you, but until you're completely comfortable with what you're hearing, it's going to be a tough decision.
"And right now I haven't taken in enough information to make a decision either way."
For more on the Steelers, read the new blog, Ed Bouchette On the Steelers at [url="http://www.post-gazette.com/plus"]http://www.post-gazette.com/plus[/url]. Ed Bouchette can be reached at [email="ebouchette@post-gazette.com"]ebouchette@post-gazette.com[/email].
Read more: [url="http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09304/1009894-66.stm?cmpid=steelers.xml#ixzz0VZEvHGCF"]http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09304/10 ... z0VZEvHGCF[/url]
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