Irwin plans to play through shoulder injury
Robbie Irwin only was trying to be helpful when he volunteered to fill in briefly as a scout-team running back during one of the William Blount High School football team’s practices last week.
He had no idea it would end up causing such a problem.
The starting senior running back was diagnosed Monday with a dislocated left shoulder, an injury he unknowingly played with last week in the Governors’ 38-35 home victory over winless Jefferson County.
Irwin still doesn’t expect his shoulder to hold him back Friday night, when William Blount (2-2, 0-1 District 4-AAA) visits new district opponent Knoxville Catholic (2-1, 0-1) in a long-anticipated showdown with former Govs coach Scott Meadows.
“I can do no further injury to it, now that they’ve got (the shoulder) back in,” Irwin said Tuesday.
“The only injury I can do now would be to do the same thing to it. And if I don’t land exactly the way I did, I’m not going to do the same thing to it. It’s just a matter of me being able to tolerate the pain.”
Irwin, who has accounted for more than 200 yards of total offense this season, said he was injured on a collision during a midweek practice last week.
He had stepped in as a scout-team running back during a team drill when no one else was available.
William Blount’s second-leading rusher this season behind quarterback Zach Witt, Irwin said he felt pain shoot through his shoulder at the time of the injury but had no idea how serious it was until he had it checked out Monday.
He expected to wear full pads for Wednesday’s practice after being held out Tuesday.
Irwin wore a shoulder stabilizer Tuesday, when he did some light running on the side during practice, and said he would wear the nearly unnoticeable brace Friday night.