Dabo delivers good news on Justyn Ross: He can return to action for Clemson
Clemson fans have one more thing for which to cheer.
Almost two years after his sophomore season ended, redshirt junior wide receiver Justyn Ross has been medically cleared to play football this season, Tigers head football coach Dabo Swinney announced Friday.
Ross is in COVID-19 protocol, however, and won’t be at practice until the end of next week at the earliest, Swinney announced. As a team, the Tigers are around 83-84% vaccinated and should reach the 85% vaccinated threshold pretty soon. There were a couple of players that were planning to get vaccinated this weekend, Swinney added.
The past 18 months have been a long time coming for Ross, a Phenix City, Ala. native who learned he had a congenital fusion in his spine last spring. He was born with the condition, but it didn’t come to light until he reportedly felt “stinger-like symptoms” during a spring practice in 2020.
An X-ray revealed the spinal fusion and Ross had surgery last June.
“Nobody to this point knew that he had that, and he’s had no issues his whole career,” Swinney said at the time. “Because of the situation when they did this X-ray, it showed up. Very concerned. And he had a little bit of a bulging disc as well. And that is an issue.
“There’s been many people play football with a surgical fusion. That happens a lot of times. But we don’t know of one that’s had a surgical and a congenital issue.”
One of the results of the surgery was Ross having to sit out of the 2020 season. This came on the heels of the Tiger recording 1,865 yards on 112 catches with 17 touchdowns over 29 games played, including 14 starts, in his first two years.
Ross was able to practice some during the spring, but it was all non-contact. He also worked to develop some of the muscle lost while he was recovering from the surgery. His return has been a positive sign for an already-loaded group looking to continue the “Wide Receiver U” tradition.
This story was originally published August 6, 2021 at 3:27 PM.
