The Colorado Buffaloes’ frontcourt has been a bit of a mystery during the offseason, largely due to a trio of injuries. Forward Rider Portela and center Eric Jacobsen were both limited at times during the summer due to respective hand and knee injuries, but they made it back before fall camp.

However, Charlotte 49ers transfer forward David Gomez missed the entirety of the summer and the start of fall camp due to stress fractures in his foot. While concern was recently raised about him due to his decision to continue sitting out despite being cleared by the medical staff, he has returned to practice and provided reasoning for that decision.

David Gomez’s choice to extend his rehab

Gomez had the opportunity to return to practice as early as the final week of September, with Colorado’s medical staff clearing him at that point. However, he elected to continue his rehab and, in turn, continue sitting out of regular practice for over a week after being cleared.

“I listen to our doctors, and I listen to our training staff,” said Colorado coach Tad Boyle on Sept. 27. “We have really good doctors and a really good training staff. Most doctors and training staffs in this day and age are very conservative. But according to them, he’s fine, he’s ready to go, but David doesn’t think he is. He’s got some pain there, so he’s not playing … All I can do is deal with the guys who are there, healthy and ready to play.”

David Gomez explains his choice to extend rehab 

But now that he’s back in practice, Gomez explained his reasoning behind continuing to sit out. It all stemmed from his past experience with this same injury when he was at Charlotte. He was only able to play in two games for the 49ers before the stress fractures sidelined him, but when his team started losing, he rushed himself back.

All that did was create setbacks in his recovery, forcing him to miss nearly a year of action in total. After having surgery on his foot, he wanted to be sure that he wouldn’t relive that same experience.

“Yeah, definitely,” said Gomez, on whether his injury setback at Charlotte made him come back slower this year. “This is the third time that I’ve had this injury. Last year, I decided to get surgery. And [this year], since we’ve got time until games start, I wanted to be 100 percent sure that I’m not going to have this problem again when I come back.”

How David Gomez is feeling being back in practice

In Gomez’s first week back, that approach has seemingly paid off. He’s hitting the ground running after analyzing his teammates’ playstyles for several months and is now just finding the rhythm of the game again.

“I’m feeling great,” Gomez said. “I made one comeback, but I [got reinjured]; now I’m finally back and feeling great. I’ve got to get the touch back since it's been almost a year without playing. But I’m really happy to be out there playing right now.”

His foot injury will still be something to monitor as the season approaches and through non-conference play. However, his conservative approach to returning to fall practice may have saved him and Buffs fans a major heartbreak down the road.

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