Tra Thomas back in practice

[MURP]

August 18, 2005
By DAVE SPADARO

The exhaustion felt great to offensive tackle Tra Thomas. He had just completed his first two-a-day practice session since last summer and while he knows he has a ways to go to be ready for the 2005 opener in Atlanta, Thomas has every reason to think he'll be there.

"I'm a little far behind, but not too far," said Thomas, who had been out since March after the discovery of a blood clot in his left leg forced him to take medication to first break down the medication and then reduce the risk of it re-occuring. "It's nothing that a good week of getting in pads and working with these guys won't fix."

OT Tra Thomas
Thomas made the decision to end the medication -- blood thinners, which he stopped taking on Monday -- a week or so early "so that I could get myself together (for Atlanta). I didn't want to come off the medicine and then go straight to a Monday Night Football game. I needed a couple of weeks to get myself together, ready to play a game."

Thomas said his clot is not completely gone. But the clot has "stiffened up, so that I don't have to worry about it shifting. It's something that I'm still going to have to watch."

Thomas, a three-time Pro Bowl left tackle, had a blood clot discovered in his leg back prior to the April NFL draft -- actually, it was discovered in March -- and was unable to take part in any contact workouts since.

The man on the other end of the offensive line, Jon Runyan, said that Thomas' situation has not been scary since he is doing everything necessary to keep himself healthy in the long run.

"The longer he's on the blood thinners, the less likely it is to occur," Runyan said. "He is trying to do some preventative stuff so he won't miss time in the middle of the season."

And while there was no contact, per se, in Thursday's practices -- although there was plenty of banging bodies between offensive linemen and defensive linemen -- Thomas has been cleared to accelerate his recovery.

Runyan joked that Thomas should skip practice and just head right for the preseason game.

"You can skip practice, go to Baltimore and I can have the weekend off," Runyan said.

Thomas likely won't play Saturday in Baltimore. It remains to be seen when he will suit up, but Thomas is ready to go when the coaches give him the OK.

His medical condition brightened as the blood clot broke apart his months of treatment, but a series of blood thinners he was taking forced him to remain sidelined throughout training camp.

Thomas worked briefly with the offensive line during Wednesday's special teams practice and then joined the entire team on Thursday morning.

[General_Failure]

I wish he'd stay on the meds. Blood clots are nothing you want to farg around with.