Collaros reflects on season-ending injury

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Ticat quarterback Zach Collaros addressed the media this morning, and spoke publicly for the first time about his season-ending knee injury.

At this point in the season Collaros was, hands-down, the league favorite as the CFL’s most outstanding player. Today he showed just how tough he really is, by talking about his devastating injury with a lot of class, and even a little bit of humor.

He said the injury was not the result of the hit he took, early in the second quarter of Saturday afternoon’s game; it appeared to be the way he planted his foot that may have led to the torn ACL. A date for his surgery has not been set, but he will not be returning home to Illinois.

He’ll have the procedure done here, and do his rehabilitation in Hamilton where he can still be close to the team.

Not only is Collaros their leader on the field, he’s one of their biggest cheerleaders. But it’s not just important for the Ticats to keep him close – it’s important for Zach as well.

“I just wanna be here. You know I’ve been playing team sports as long as I remember. You don’t get that feeling when you’re sitting at home.”

“I wanna be here if Jeff needs someone to talk to, just some advice on things, because we’re all around the same age but I’ve played in more games, right, so I like to think I have more knowledge of what’s going on.”

“Rehab usually starts in 48 hours after surgery, so, I’ll take those 48 hours to sulk a little bit, and maybe watch some romantic comedy movies or something and try and lift my spirits, come back in and get ready to go.”

Head coach Kent Austin also spoke this morning, and he reiterated what he told CHCH News last night: that at this point it looks like the next man up will be rookie quarterback Jeff Matthews.

The Ticats do have a bit of an advantage in this tough situation: they have a bye week to figure things out.