PAIN IN THE NECK
Michigan's Foley Dowd overcoming broken neck
There were the five knee operations, the broken fingers, the numerous back problems and the countless aches and pains that Foley Dowd coupled with being a wrestler.
There was the stinging that started when Dowd fractured his neck in high school and followed him to Michigan. Just another wrestling injury, the 133-pounder thought.
But it wouldn’t go away. And midway through Dowd’s junior season, the tingling began branching through his right arm. Eventually, he could barely feel or move it.
"I felt like if you banged your head hard, you’d get a shooting pain down your arm and that it wa
s normal," said Dowd, now a senior. "I was thinking it was one more injury I had to fight through."But last February, he realized he was dealing with something that couldn’t be healed with mental toughness, physical therapy or traction. Besides, the doctors wouldn’t let him try to wrestle through it.
He was diagnosed with a bulging disc in his neck, which began pinching his spinal cord. It prematurely ended the season of a wrestler who had beaten five All-Americans — four of them at least twice — but had never been one himself.
"The thing for me was: What’s the point of going through another month of pain when you can’t even wrestle"" Dowd said. "I had fought through some pretty good injuries, but with one arm and a broken neck how was I going to do at the Nationals""
All of a sudden, Dowd’s goals in wrestling were pushed aside for his physical well-being. A national title wasn’t as important as staying out of a wheelchair.
For nearly a month, Dowd was convinced he’d never wrestle again. That’s what doctors were telling him. It appeared as if the career of the former Asics first-team high school All-American from Howell, N.J., would end with unfulfilled expectations.
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