By Whitney Sant

April 15, 2008 | The Aggies' presumptive starting tight end, Rob Meyers, has been taking it easy since injuring his knee in scrimmage last week.

He was missed during the football squad's annual Blue and White spring scrimmage at Romney Stadium, and Meyers' teammates and coaches are looking forward to his recovery.

The 22-year-old junior from Texas woke up Wednesday morning with a completely swollen knee, unable to walk. The injury occurred when his knee hit another player's helmet during practice Tuesday night.

"I could tell something was wrong," he said. "I went in for one more play after it happened and struggled to make it back to the sideline."

The next morning, his teammates took Meyers to the hospital, where he stayed for several hours. His doctors said Meyers had a ruptured bursa sack in his left knee.

Unable to drain the fluid buildup in his knee with the standard procedure of sticking a needle under the kneecap, Meyers said, the doctors "basically had to cut my knee open and push the fluid out. It was that swollen."

Despite the loss of their starting tight-end for the Blue and White spring scrimmage last weekend, the Aggie football coaching staff is staying positive about Meyers' injury and optimistic about his recovery for the fall season.

"We were happy to find out that it is just a bursa sack injury," Aggies tight ends coach Tracy Smith said. "He got a lot out of the spring practices before this occurred. We hope he can remain healthy and look forward to his team contribution since he has a good amount of time to recover until the fall season begins."

Doctors have ordered Meyers to stay on crutches until this week, when his stitches come out.

"If it had to happen, it came at a right time," Meyers said. "I would rather sit out now than in the season, although I am anxious to be back to full speed.

Meyers isn't the only injury after the Aggies' four-week spring schedule, which meant practice three hours a day with only Wednesdays off.

Also on the sidelines with Meyers are Xavier Bowman, with a possible meniscus tear; Jacob Atkinson, with two centimeters of bone missing from his left shoulder, and Dervin Speight, with a strained Achilles tendon.

"Injuries are always going to occur when you are going as hard as we do everyday," said long snapper Patrick Scales. "We just have to rise up as a team and overcome them."

The Utah State football team ended spring practice last weekend and will have until June 2 to recuperate.

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